Guidelines

Is palm oil used for animal feed?

Is palm oil used for animal feed?

Palm oil is in nearly everything – it’s in close to 50% of the packaged products we find in supermarkets, everything from pizza, doughnuts and chocolate, to deodorant, shampoo, toothpaste and lipstick. It’s also used in animal feed and as a biofuel in many parts of the world (not in the UK though!).

How do you make palm oil?

After being stripped from the FFB, the palm fruit is processed into two main products: Crude Palm Oil (CPO), which is extracted from the mesocarp or flesh of the fruit, and Palm Kernel Oil (PKO), which comes from the hard seed in the centre. The first step is to press the fruit, which squeezes CPO from its mesocarp.

How is palm oil prepared 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 is red oil made?

Palm oil, and red palm oil in particular, is made from the fruit of the African oil palm, both the seed and the flesh. While this substance has been used by humans for thousands of years, the production of palm oil has skyrocketed over the past few decades.

What kind of animals can eat oil palm fronds?

Oil palm fronds are a low-protein, high-fibre material that has been shown to be palatable and to have a good feeding potential for many classes of herbivore livestock, including cattle, buffaloes, sheep, goats, deers and rabbits ( Dahlan et al., 2000; Dahlan et al., 1994 ).

How is palm oil grown in the rainforest?

While high yielding crops are generally pretty sustainable, that is not true in the case of palm oil. Palm oil is primarily harvested from palm trees that grow in rainforests — and as explained by Rainforest Rescue , developers often bulldoze or set fire to land in rainforests to make room for more palm oil plantations.

How does the palm oil industry affect the environment?

Palm oil is primarily harvested from palm trees that grow in rainforests — and as explained by Rainforest Rescue , developers often bulldoze or set fire to land in rainforests to make room for more palm oil plantations. This process releases the greenhouse gas CO2 into the atmosphere, all the while destroying animal habitats.

What can oil palm fronds be used for?

Leaving oil palm fronds to decompose between the rows of palm trees can help soil conservation and erosion control ( Abu Hassan et al., 1996 ). Using them for animal feeding is another way to recycle energy and nutrients.