Quality of fried foods with palm oil

The amount of imported palm oil in Japan during the past few years has been 140,000–150,000 tons per year, or about 9% of the total consumption of vegetable oils in Japan. In 1975, part of the palm oil was imported as refined type from Malaysia. At the present time, almost all of the palm oil from Malaysia is refined. At the starting point quality of the refined palm oil was not so good, but today it is fairly improved by efforts of Malaysian processers. Palm oil has excellent properties against oxidation, and it has been generally accepted by consumers as a vegetable oil for health foods. There also is a big potential for increasing consumption of palm oil in fried foods. Severe regulation of food additives restricts the use of artificial antioxidants and therefore strict quality control is required to get stable frying oils. Consumer knowledge of foods is increasing, and our responsibility for making good quality frying fats is very important.