Palm Oil / Palm Olein

What this is

Palm oil is an edible oil from the fruit of oil palm trees. It’s widely used in fast-food and packaged products, often as a replacement for trans fat oils, because it stays stable at high frying temperatures (due to its high saturation) and has a long shelf life. About half of its fatty acids are saturated, so heavy use of palm oil can raise “bad” LDL cholesterol levels over time, potentially increasing heart disease risk. Food safety experts also monitor certain chemical byproducts of palm oil refining (like 3-MCPD and glycidyl esters) which have shown toxic or cancer-causing properties in lab tests.

Critical Endpoints

The key endpoints experts review in safety assessments (critical endpoints). This is not a prediction of harm.