'(14 Jan 2017) LEAD IN: Processed palm oil has the highest number of contaminants which pose a potential cancer risk in animal studies, according to research conducted by the European Food Safety Agency. That scientific opinion\'s prompted food manufacturers including the maker of the popular chocolate spread Nutella to defend their production. But palm oil is highly controversial worldwide for many reasons, so why is it the food industry\'s dream ingredient? STORY-LINE: You might not have realised it, but there is a good chance that this African palm was a secret ingredient in many of the things you consumed during the Christmas and New Year holidays. Palm oil may have been in skincare products you received as presents, the hairsprays and shampoos you used, as well as being in many of the foods you sat down to eat. According to the conservation charity, the World Wildlife Fund, palm oil is in about half of all packaged supermarket products. For many of the countries it\'s grown in, the oil palm is a vital source of income. There are at least two oil palms growing in the giant palm house here at the UK\'s Royal Botannical Gardens Kew. In the wild of course they grow much bigger and their oil producing fruit is much bigger too. Wolf Eiserhardt is one of a core of cutting edged scientist carrying out research here. He explores the lineages of plants in great detail throughout many ages. There are 2,600 varieties of palm growing around the world, the oil palm is just one of them. According to Eiserhardt: \"The product that we know as palm oil just comes from one of them which is the African oil palm, or Elaeis guineensis as we botanists call it and this palm is native to the wet tropics of Africa, but it is nowadays cultivated throughout the tropics of the world and most of the palm oil production is actually taking place in south east Asia, in Malaysia and Indonesia.\" He explains the reason it is so popular with manufacturers is that: \"It has about fifty per cent saturated fatty acids, which means that in temperate countries it\'s actually solid. It\'s a little bit like butter so you can use it for the same kind of thing as butter and about eighty per cent of the palm oil production is used in the food industry which really likes it.\" It\'s this viscosity which also makes it popular with makers of beauty and cosmetic products, it\'s in everything from soap and toothpaste, to hairspray and lipstick. However, this perfect all round ingredient has to be grown in a tropical environment, which is limited and which is also home to the most biodiverse regions our world has to offer. The oil palm grows densely, blotting out other plant life unless, like here Kew, it\'s growth is restricted. Also tropical rainforest areas cleared for palm oil production has meant animals like the orangutan are being driven out of what is left of their natural habitat, leaving them critically endangered. According to Eiserhardt: \"You can get about four tonnes per hectare of oil from those palms which is ten times as much as other major oil crops like rapeseed or soybean and because of that it is one of the most profitable land uses in the humid tropics where it grows. So people really like to grow it because they can make a lot of money from it and this is particularly important for small holders in the tropics. Just under half of all the oil production is actually done by small farmers.\" One less successful solution has been to encourage agroforestry where the palms are grown much less densely, together with other plants in mixed plantations. Find out more about AP Archive: http://www.aparchive.com/HowWeWork Twitter: https://twitter.com/AP_Archive Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/APArchives Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/APNews/ You can license this story through AP Archive: http://www.aparchive.com/metadata/youtube/dd02a1d10f20d3c542c62566d432d9bd'
Tags: Lifestyle , science , Business , Southeast Asia , united kingdom , Western Europe , AP Archive , Environment and nature , 4075713 , dd02a1d10f20d3c542c62566d432d9bd , (HZ) UK Palm Oil
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