In light of the remarks made by Belgian Senators de Bethune, Frassen and Targnion and Swiss MP de Buman, do you think that certain people may be guilty of making alarmist claims regarding palm oil?
Unfortunately, yes. Certain people have taken advantage of their own position to make alarmist claims while certain members of the anti-palm oil lobby have an interest in denigrating the image of palm oil so that other vegetable oils or dairy fats may benefit.
However, this is a dangerous game and may ultimately result in more damage to competing vegetable oils, if a malicious campaign were to be launched against these oils evoking the dangers of GMOs and their inferior yields resulting in the need to deforest 10 times more land to produce comparable amounts. Specifically, soybean has resulted in the loss of 10 times more biodiversity in the Amazon than the cultivation of oil palm.
What are trans fats? Do these relate to palm oil?
Let us start by reiterating that palm oil does not contain trans fats. In their natural state, these can be found in the fats of ruminants and therefore in milk and dairy products. However, they are present in small amounts. They are formed through the partial hydrogenation of unsaturated fatty acids in the rumen of cattle by the microbial flora inside this organ.
Trans fats are also found in partially hydrogenated oils – but in significant amounts. Thanks to the use of naturally hydrogenated oils like palm oil – which is entirely trans fats-free – we have been able to develop a wide range of margarines, spreads and cooking fats that do not contain hydrogenated oils.
You wrote a scientific paper entitled ‘Palm oil, another point of view’. Could you give us a brief summary?
The key point in this paper is the observation by biochemists and organic chemists, applying their knowledge of living systems they have studied for more than half a century. Vegetable oils such as palm oil and cocoa butter, which are widely consumed and rich in saturated fatty acids, are not unhealthy under normal consumption conditions.
Oils known as lauric oils, such as palm kernel oil (from the nut of the oil palm fruit), contain 90% saturated fatty acids – 80% of these are short chain fatty acids and they are a special case in terms of digestion. Because of their short chain fatty acids, they cross the intestinal wall very quickly and are transported directly to the liver by the portal vein to make energy. Thus lauric oils have a neutral impact on cardiovascular disease and cancer.
Regarding the myths surrounding palm oil, what are the key points that French consumers need to remember about palm oil and its effects on health?
Consumers need to remember that scientific researchers consider refined palm oil as having a neutral or positive effect on health; its saturated fatty acids are not dangerous; it contains a small amount of compounds such as carotenes, tocopherols and above all tocotrienols that have a powerful protective effect against cancer and cardiovascular disease.
Palm oil is a valuable ingredient for the European food industry because it enables an enormous range of manufacturing processes at a lower cost and at no health risk to the consumer.
In your scientific paper, reference is made to the anti-palm oil lobby and the ridiculousness of the current debate. What is your opinion of the demonisation of palm oil by certain players in the retail sector?
Palm oil has been targeted unfairly in a campaign to demonise it, primarily through activities of the anti-palm oil lobby that can be clearly identified – namely, sunflower and canola for Europe.
In fact, palm oil is the most popular vegetable oil in the world with global production in 2012 having reached 51 million tonnes compared to 41 million tonnes for soybean, canola (23 million tonnes) and sunflower (14 million tonnes). This supremacy in the global market has not pleased producers of competing vegetable oils.
Those in the anti-palm oil lobby know that it is very easy to make false claims about a certain topic and target these claims at uninformed consumers, who quickly assimilate them to become accepted beliefs. Once disseminated, these claims can only be countered and eradicated by a laborious process of education centred on the promotion of scientific facts.
Communications professionals know very well how this works and – in an age where correct and false information can circulate globally in real-time thanks to the Internet, television and newspapers – it has become extremely easy to reach out and cause alarm among a great number of consumers by providing them with ‘information’ on a particular subject. This is particularly effective when a supposed health-risk is emphasised and associated with the consumption of a particular product.
In the case of the anti-palm oil lobby, the misinformation activities reach their apex when major television channels decide to address a topic like ‘the effect of palm oil on human health and the environment’ and provide a platform for doctors who are self-professed ‘nutritionists’ or to environmentalists who try to educate us on ‘healthy living’ or how to be responsible citizens.
In France, the success of such communication or misinformation campaigns did not go unnoticed by players in the retail sector who distribute products containing palm oil. Given the significant financial interests at stake, they saw the attacks on palm oil as an opportunity to promote their own range of ‘palm oil-free’ products.
Under the pretext of consumer health, which remains paramount, certain brands took ‘social action’ by declaring that they would no longer offer any products containing palm oil to their customers. In doing so, the brands believed that they had regained their credibility and increased their influence on customers through cheap, opportunistic advertising.
