Where Is Palm Oil Extracted from?

What is palm oil? It's an edible vegetable oil that comes from the fruit of oil palm trees, the scientific name is Elaeis guineensis. Two types of oil can be produced; crude palm oil comes from squeezing the fleshy fruit, and palm kernel oil which comes from crushing the kernel, or the stone in the middle of the fruit.

How is palm oil extracted locally?

The village traditional method of extracting palm oil involves washing pounded fruit mash in warm water and hand squeezing to separate fibre and nuts from the oil/water mixture. A colander, basket or a vessel with fine perforated holes in the bottom is used to filter out fibre and nuts.

How does palm oil get extracted?

The palm kernel, the nut found in the centro of each piece of fruit, is extracted and sent to a palm kernel crushing mill. The oil is extracted from the kernel. The pulp left over from this process is pressed together, forming palm kernel cake or expeller.