Carotenoid concentrate from palm oil

Carotenoid concentrate from palm oil is the commodity that is being widely developed in recent years as the increasing demand for cooking oil produced using the fractionation and refining. The CPO has several advantages. It contain high amounts of carotenoids, which is around 500-700ppm depending on variety, age of the raw material when it’s being harvested, cultivation techniques, and soil conditions.
This compound is abundant in perfectly mature fruits as the raw material. This gives the appearance of red or orange on the fruits, while the immature ones only contain slightly carotenoid. They will go into the oil which is squeezed from the fibers that give red or orange properties on the CPO produced.
Carotenoid concentrate from palm oil has an important role as natural pigment and provitamin A. Tocopherol content was also quite high as 600-1000 ppm. Processesing method of cooking oil industry applied for these compounds cause damage due to high temperatures used during manufacturing.
Unfortunately, these important substances are reduced or eliminated because consumers tend to like clear colored product. Perceptions of consumers experiencing confusion because they assume a yellow or red appearance is caused by poor manufacturing. They probably imagine a method like the one which is performed to get cooking oil from coconut milk by heating it continuously. The longer the heating, the product will also be more yellow or dark due to a growing quantity of components that may have been resulted from the Maillard reaction between reducing groups such as simple sugars and amino groups such as amino acids and accelerated by the heat. So, they think that the uncolored ones are good. In addition, the reddish color of frying medium may also affect the appearance of final product.
Extraction of efficacious compound from CPO with a particular technique may increase their value. Providing a carotenoid concentrate from palm oil has high economic profit as the other commodity resulted from cooking oil processing.