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Oil palm industries generate at least 30 million tonnes of lignocellulosic biomass annually in the form of oil palm trunks (OPT), empty fruit bunches (EFB), oil palm fronds (OPF) and palm pressed fibres (PPF). At present, the biomass is either left to rot in the plantations to provide organic nutrients to the oil palm trees … Read more

Lignin is a phenolic polymeric complex that attaches with cellulose and hemicellulose. Whereas, cellulose is a linear polymer of glucose (six carbon sugar) and hemicellulose is a branched polymer of xylose (five carbon sugar). Extraction of these components from lignocellulosic materials, with minimal waste by-products and with environmentally friendly process, has to be taken into … Read more

Palm heart or umbut has become an exotic mass product mainly used as a salad ingredient in Europe. Normally, the source of palm heart is from coconut tree, but now the palm heart can be collected from oil palm tree. Oil palm hearts are slender, ivory-coloured, delicately flavoured and quite expensive. However, its quality deteriorates … Read more

Malaysia is one of the top five exporters of MDF in the world. Our total production capacity exceeds one million cubic metres per year. Presently, most of the major producers use rubberwood as the raw material. With the decline in the price of latex, interest in rubber plantation also decline. At present, the area under … Read more

A survey (Tang et al., 1996) to gather information on the types of heating media used in the Malaysian palm oil refineries carried out by the Malaysian Palm Oil Board (MPOB) in 1995 revealed that a majority of the older palm oil refineries still use thermal heating fluids as heat-transfer media, but none of the … Read more

Colour is an important indication of product composition, purity and degree of deterioration. It is a quick check on degradation and the suitability and stability of the product for a particular use. In the case of vegetable oils, it is necessary to monitor each stage of the refining process to determine whether the correct colour … Read more

Chocolate and cocoa products are a pleasure to eat and are well accepted as food in many cultures around the world. The nutritional value of foods is related to its composition including its content of carbohydrates, fats, proteins, minerals and vitamins. Despite a necessity to choose and consume healthy foods to provide a balanced diet, … Read more

The role of different types of margarine in various baked products is subtly different. In cakes, margarine is an essential factor in incorporating finely dispersed air bubbles, which imparts fine crumb structure and delicate eating properties to the baked product. It helps increase the cake volume by shortening the strands of gluten, which in the … Read more

Biscuits are a very popular snack food. They contain basic ingredients such as flour, fat, sugar, egg, flavour, and leavening agent, similar to cake but at different proportions. In biscuits, fat or shortening may be selected to aid in producing the most desirable spread, to produce volume or to furnish other textural attributes (Andres, 1985). … Read more

Roselle or its scientific name Hibiscus sabdariffa L. Malvaceae is also known as Florida cranberry due its similarity in taste and flavour to cranberry. Believed to have originated from Sudan, roselle is grown as a rain-fed crop in Sudan and Egypt and as a source of pulp for paper in certain parts of the world. … Read more