Industry
@ Halal | JANUARY-FEBRUARY . 2023
BY AREEJ MOHD TAUFIK , NINA NAQUIAH AHMAD NIZAR AND SITI AIMI SARAH ZAINAL ABIDIN
MALAYSIA is one of the top countries for palm oil production ( MPOC Annual Report , 2020 ). According to the Malaysian Palm Oil Council ( MPOC ), sales of palm oil products increased by RM9.3 billion ( 14.6 per cent ) in 2020 , surpassing RM73 billion .
Malaysian palm oil has gained recognition worldwide , and a variety of food products can use it because of its unique qualities ( Tan et al ., 2021 ).
The world ’ s reliance on fats and oils has been more significant than one could imagine . The world ’ s demand for oils and fats is primarily satisfied by palm oil . Producing up to
Carotea prototype - Innovation of milk tea fortified with red palm oil .
Red palm oil as a halal functional ingredient Nutrition benefits and source of ingredients attract consumers
four tonnes of oil / ha / year , the oil palm is the most productive vegetable oil crop compared to soybean , sunflower , canola , and others ( Oil World Annual , 2018 ).
This means oil palm takes less area to produce the same amount of oil as other vegetable oil crops . Palm oil has a balanced fatty acid ratio consisting of 50 per cent saturated fats ( palmitic acid and stearic acid ) and 50 per cent unsaturated fats ( oleic acid and linoleic acid , commonly known as Omega-9 and Omega-6 fatty acids , respectively ).
Palm oil is rich in phytonutrients with antioxidant properties that can help with disease prevention , such as vitamin E tocotrienols , provitamin A ( also known as carotenoids ), phytosterols , coenzyme Q10 and many others ( Kalyana et al ., 2003 ).
Unbeknownst to many , crude palm oil ( CPO ) is the richest natural plant source for provitamin A carotenoids , including alpha- and beta-carotene ( Loganathan et al ., 2017 ). These carotenoids impart an orangey-red colour to crude palm oil .
RED PALM OIL BENEFITS
CPO can be processed into various products such as palm stearin ( solid fat ), palm olein ( liquid oil ), and many more , including red palm oil ( RPO ). The process of molecular distillation , a specialised method of refinement , yields RPO while retaining nearly 80 per cent of the carotenoids and vitamin E found in CPO .
RPO contains 15 times more carotenoids than carrots , 44 times more than leafy vegetable , and 300 more than tomatoes ( May , 1994 ). Provitamin A carotenoids are fat-soluble pigments that require fat for conversion into vitamin A , which is then absorbed in the small intestine .
A minimum of 5g of fat is required for optimal absorption of carotenoids . Vitamin A deficiency manifests as visual impairment , blindness , stunting , anaemia , respiratory disease , increased risk of infection , and mortality from common childhood infections like diarrhoea and measles ( Abolurin et al ., 2018 ; Radhika et al ., 2013 ).
Hence , vitamin A requirements are higher in newborns and youngsters to enable rapid growth and better resistance to infection . In adults , studies have found that RPO reduces the incidence of maternal anaemia and increases vitamin A levels in lactating women ( Loganathan et al ., 2017 ).
The same study also reports that regular consumption of one-two teaspoon of RPO can help ensure children and mothers who are pregnant or nursing get enough vitamin A .
Are there a lot of food products with RPO ? RPO is often marketed as supplementary oil and cooking or salad oil . The use of RPO can be expanded to other sections of the food industry .
Therefore , the market gaps can be assessed to identify opportunities for a novel RPOfortified product . Malaysian Palm Oil Board ( MPOB ) has done significant research on developing RPO-based products such as snack bar , ice cream milk and gummy .
Several process innovations of RPO into powder through microencapsulation methods also ease the process of incorporating RPO into the products .
RED PALM OIL AS A FUNCTIONAL INGREDIENT
Nurhusna et al . ( 2020 ) developed a sorghum and beans-based snack bar with the addition of RPO , which aims to supplement food for pregnant women . The study found that two per cent of RPO with a ratio of 2:1 of sorghum flakes and beans was well accepted by pregnant women with an overall acceptability of 97 per cent .
Other than that , research by Abd-ElGahny et al . ( 2020 ) reported the usage of fresh RPO as a milk fat substitute in the formula of ice milk . They investigated the effect of this replacement on the quality characteristics at different concentrations .
In this study , it has been found that ice milk that contains RPO of 25 and 50 % showed similar and better quality characteristics such as pH value , acidity , overrun , melting rate , fatty acids , colour values , sensory , carotenoid and vitamin E .
A study by researchers from Universiti Putra Malaysia ( UPM ) and Malaysian Palm Oil Board ( MPOB ) on RPO has successfully pioneered the discovery of content process innovation , ultimately transforming it into powder via microencapsulation technique .
The findings have also been applied to Nutra Mee ’ s meal , making it the only quick noodle with an effective antioxidant agent .
MPOC and UiTM conducted a different study on the knowledge of RPO ( n = 300 ) among Malaysian . 78.3 per cent of respon-