Quality of Indonesian CPO

Quality of Indonesian CPO

From Bisnis Indonesia

Some five million tons of Indonesia's crude palm oil (CPO) cannot be traded due to damage. According to palm oil plant expert Takal Barus (Bisnis Indonesia, Oct. 23), improper processing in state-owned estate companies' plants has caused the damage.

As an engineer now still engaged in the palm oil industry, I have noticed that beta carotene as the precursor of vitamin A as well as tocopherol and tocotrienol as vitamin E, found abundant in fresh oil palm fruits (over 1,500 ppm), are reduced to only 400 ppm in CPO due to an inferior system of processing. After CPO's processing into cooking oil, only a maximum of 50 ppm of carotene is left in various Indonesian CPO products. Ironically, advertisements have formed the public opinion that the clearer the oil, the higher its quality.

Why does the carotene grade of Malaysian CPO exceed 500 ppm as required by India? Why is Malaysia capable of producing reddish yellow cooking oil (CPO's original color) with 400 ppm of vitamin A and 800 ppm of vitamin E?

The answer is very complex. But if we suspect the technology we derive from Malaysia of having been modified in such a way that our CPO quality becomes always low, it is unwise and childish. The draining of condensate water in the back pressure vessel (BPV) as instructed by Malaysian experts has not caused the damage of our CPO, as indicated by Takal Barus.

NURKHAMID Karawang, West Java