Malaysia is currently the leading producer and exporter of palm oil in the world and, in order to stay in the forefront, new planting materials with different oil compositions have to be developed to meet the future needs of the industry. PORIM has taken the initiative to produce PORIM series 2 (PS2) planting materials of high iodine value (I.V) for a more unsaturated and liquid palm oil (Rajanaidu et al., 1998;1999). An increase in unsaturation is desirable due to consumer demands for monounsaturated and polyunsaturated dietary oils and fats. A higher unsaturation level in palm oil enables better penetration into the liquid oil market. The fatty acid composition (FAC) of palm oil of current planting materials limits its share of the liquid and salad oil markets in temperature countries. Palm oil is semi-solid at room temperature (28 C) and can be fractioned into 70% liquid olein and 30% solid stearin. The quality of oil can be improved by reducing stearin and increasing olein levels in crude palm oil (CPO).

Main Research: Dr N. Rajanaidu