Palm Oil: The Problem Isn't the Palm, It's the Refining

Palm Oil: The Enemy Isn't the Palm, It's the Refining

Palm oil isn't poison. Or at least, not necessarily. The problem, according to the most common analysis amid the debate about its removal from store shelves, lies not in the fruit it comes from, but in the process that transforms it into an industrial ingredient with a silky texture and endless shelf life. This distinction, which rarely makes it into headlines, changes everything.

The campaign against this ingredient gained significant momentum. Supermarkets and manufacturers pledged to remove it from baked goods; some partially fulfilled their promises. However, the majority of palm oil produced globally doesn't end up in a muffin.

Is Palm Oil Dangerous to Health?

The short answer: it depends on which kind. Virgin palm oil — cold-pressed, unrefined — is a product notably rich in Vitamin A and not significantly different from other vegetable oils. The type found in industrial baked goods is refined. And refining produces trans fats.

Trans fats, according to the most technical arguments circulating, are molecules that do not exist in nature — except for a small amount in breast milk — and which the human body is not equipped to metabolize. The comparison is often repeated: it enters and leaves the body the same way, but leaves damage along the way. Its function is purely aesthetic: it provides consistency, prevents the pastry from drying out, and stops fingers from getting greasy. That's where the business lies.

The nuance is important and rarely applied: the same problem affects other refined oils, including sunflower oil. Demonizing palm oil and replacing it with refined sunflower oil doesn't solve much; it merely changes the supplier.

Why the Industry Claims It Can't Be Replaced

When several supermarkets announced they would remove palm oil, manufacturers' response was emphatic: “It provides consistency, smoothness, a crunchy texture... Attempts to replace it have been made, but without success.” This was reported by the media.

The argument collapses under its own historical weight. Until twenty-five years ago, this ingredient was barely used. The shift to palm oil was massive, cheap, and global. And the detail holds the answer: the price. A ton of palm oil was priced, according to circulating calculations, at €600. The same amount of olive oil, €3,500. There's no technical debate that can compete with that.

Price per Ton (€)

• Olive oil: 3,500 €
• Palm oil: 600 €

The fine breakdown of the price difference, item by item, is what dismantles any communication campaign. Pushing the price of a muffin above one euro, when a fruit snack costs fifty cents, is the consumer's red line.

The Environmental Problem That Outlasts the Health Debate

If health aspects are debatable, another part of the issue is less so. The expansion of oil palm plantations has been associated with the deforestation of large areas of tropical rainforest and the loss of habitat for species like the orangutan. This is the point with the most consensus.

But there's a disquieting fact: most of the palm oil produced, it has been insisted, does not end up in food, but in biodiesel. Those concerned about orangutans and not muffins, the logic suggests, should look at their car's fuel tank before their oven tray.

What Peine to the Promised Removal

It wasn't instantaneous or total. As observed on store shelves, a good portion of large chains' baked goods switched to sunflower, soy, rapeseed, or blends. Premium brands like Fontaneda continued using palm oil. Frozen foods, especially battered items, barely changed.

The real substitution isn't a removal of ultra-processed foods: it's a change of fat. The product remains the same type of product, with a different name on the label.

With cheap palm oil and cheap refining, it's unlikely that ultra-processed foods will give up a fat that provides texture, stability, and profit margin. Consumers wanting to avoid it will need to learn to read labels — and distrust the label itself, because “refined olive oil” is also refined oil — rather than relying on campaigns. It remains to be seen whether sunflower oil will fare better when it comes under scrutiny.