Sustainable Substitutes for Palm Oil

Palm oil can be found in nearly anything, including shampoo, soap, vitamins, toothpaste, bread, margarine, creamer, gasoline, and animal feed. Without even including its industrial uses, palm oil is present in 50% of consumer items, according to The BBC.

This adaptable component has grown so widely available and reasonably priced that it would be quite challenging to discover sustainable alternatives to palm oil. Having said that, there are several strong substitutes for it.

Shutterstock/ Newfood Magazine | The main palm oil consuming markets are Chine, India, Indonesia and the European Union

Rapeseed Oil

Another fantastic replacement for palm oil is rapeseed oil. It is excellent for even greater heat cooking techniques like frying and roasting since it has a high smoke point, which means it doesn’t burn quickly. Monounsaturated fats, which are beneficial for your health and lower your risk of heart disease, are also included in this tasty vegetable oil.

Rapeseed oil is a fantastic replacement for palm oil in cooking and can also be used in baking. It also tastes great in salad dressing and mayonnaise. Rapeseed oil, as opposed to sunflower oil, has chemicals that may help prevent some forms of cancer. It makes sense that rapeseed oil is a popular alternative to palm oil, given that it can be used in practically all aspects of baking and cooking.

Heterotrophic algal oil

According to ScienceDirect, heterotrophic algal oil is an additional option. Although it takes less room to develop than other types of dense-celled algae, this oil has several disadvantages. It is made from a particular form of dense-celled algae called chlorella.

The expense is the primary disadvantage, followed by the fact that algae produce food that is not sustainable. Only 4% of the world’s sugar cane is considered sustainable, despite heterotrophic algae needing a lot of sugar to develop.

Shutterstock/ Newfood Magazine | Palm oil accounted for about 33% of global oils produced from oil crops

However, different kinds of algae might be used for this. The same kinds of algae are presently utilized to produce biodiesel. According to The BBC, these algal oils might substitute diesel, jet fuel, or any other oil utilized in the marine sector. Though the technology is still in its infancy, its high price may ultimately be what prevents it from taking off.

Coconut oil

Coconut oil, according to the Pulitzer Center, is the greatest substitute for palm oil. It has been demonstrated to be similarly economical and to have attributes that rival, if not beyond, those of palm oil since it also has positive health effects. It also expands swiftly. However, coconut trees can only be found in tropical climates, and if they were to take the place of palm oil fields, the same amount of land would need to be utilised for cultivation.

GETTY IMAGES/ WWF | Palm oil is clearly better than high–trans fat shortenings and probably a better choice than butter

Canola and sunflower seed oil

If the cultivation of rapeseed oil (also known as canola oil) and sunflower seed oil did not negatively impact the ecology in comparable ways, they would both be great sustainable alternatives to palm oil. According to Innovation Forum, these crops don’t have nearly the same environmental impact as outright deforestation, but they still need a lot of area and water to grow. They need more time to manufacture than palm oil does.