They Want to Make Palm Oil in a Lab. Without Palm Trees.
https://www.nytimes.com/2024/03/09/climate/palm-oil-lab-startup.html?unlocked_article_code=1.bU0.nKAx.pEvBTtP2Nvbq&smid=url-shareOpen linkView original on slrpnk.netSyndicated from the fediverse. Read and engage on the original instance.
View original on slrpnk.nethttps://www.nytimes.com/2024/03/09/climate/palm-oil-lab-startup.html?unlocked_article_code=1.bU0.nKAx.pEvBTtP2Nvbq&smid=url-shareOpen linkView original on slrpnk.net
10 replies
Because it has a melting point where it's solid at room temperature, and liquid when warmed to body temperature. That's a very big deal.
Perfect for suppositories
Basically, palmitic acid has the right length of carbon chain.
There is large-scale deforestation happening today as natural forests are replaced with palm oil plantations.
💲💲💲
It's a nearly perfect oil to work with and creates a creamy texture without any mixing or shaking contents. And it's food safe. And production is easy to scale, which is why it's such an environmental nightmare. Palm is the answer to a lot of questions product and production engineering had about improving both the product and making it cheaper without effecting cost.
“Food safe” is a weird word to use. It’s almost like it’s not food, but it’s ok to mix with food so the texture is better?
That sounds like a nightmare. That sounds like how plastic is said to be food safe. But turns out…
This is beside the valid points you were making. The food safe part just struck me.
Fried rice made with palm oil is fucking amazing.
Everyone should be avoiding palm oil. It's in a lot of products but still not that hard to avoid as long as you check the ingredients.
As long as we're depending on consumers to read an ingredients list and avoid, it's going to be used at a destructive scale. It takes either innovation (finding a substitute that's cheaper) or regulation (ban) to make the kind of change we need.