Plantation Crops

Processing and yield

• The fruits of oil palm should be processed with in few hours after harvest to obtain good quality oil. There will be deterioration of oil due to over ripening, storage, damage of fruits, etc. The usual method of processing (dry process) involves sterilisation, stripping, fruit digestion, pressing, clarification, etc. Edible palm oil should contain less than 2 % free fatty acids.

  Sl. No.	Features	Palm oil	Palm kernel oil
  1.	Part of fruit used	Mesocarp	Kernel or endosperm
  2.	Oil percentage in the fruit part used	45 to 55 %	50 %
  3.	Colour	Light yellow to orange red depending on the amount of carotenoids present	Resembles coconut oil i.e., nearly colorless

Processing for palm oil extraction

• As oil is extracted from mesocarp portion of fruit the method of oil extraction is entirely different i.e., wet processing.
• One of the major problems in oil extraction in oil palm is deterioration of oil into free fatty acids which results in poor quality of oil. Factors affecting quality of oil by increasing FFA ( Free fatty acid content should be less than 2 % for using it as edible oil )
• Time gap between harvesting and processing of FFB : 24 hours. Fruit bunches of oil palm (FFB) should be processed within 24 hours of after harvest to get good quality of oil.
• During processing oil palm fresh fruit bunches are sterilized in steam/boiling water for 30 to 60 minutes to inactivate the fat splitting enzymes.
• 1) Bruising (Crush/pound)
  2) Bad handling
  3) Delayed processing
  4) Over ripe fruiut bunches.
• Fruit bunches are to be processed with in 24 hours of harvesting. If at all it has to be stored, it has to be sterilized and stored
• Sterillization of FFB: After harvesting bunches are sterilized at 130 ºC for one hour under pressure of 2 kg per cm2.