<P> Along with coconut oil, palm oil is one of the few highly saturated vegetable fats and is semisolid at room temperature . Palm oil is a common cooking ingredient in the tropical belt of Africa, Southeast Asia and parts of Brazil . Its use in the commercial food industry in other parts of the world is widespread because of its lower cost and the high oxidative stability (saturation) of the refined product when used for frying . One source reported that humans consumed an average 17 pounds (7.7 kg) of palm oil per person in 2015 . </P> <P> The use of palm oil in food products has attracted the concern of environmental activist groups; the high oil yield of the trees has encouraged wider cultivation, leading to the clearing of forests in parts of Indonesia and Malaysia to make space for oil - palm monoculture . This has resulted in significant acreage losses of the natural habitat of the three surviving species of orangutan . One species in particular, the Sumatran orangutan, has been listed as critically endangered . In 2004, an industry group called the Roundtable on Sustainable Palm Oil was formed to work with the palm oil industry to address these concerns . Additionally, in 1992, in response to concerns about deforestation, the Government of Malaysia pledged to limit the expansion of palm oil plantations by retaining a minimum of half the nation's land as forest cover . In March 2017, a documentary made by Deutsche Welle revealed that palm oil is used to make milk substitutes to feed calves in dairies in the German alps . These milk substitutes contain 30 percent milk powder and the remainder of raw protein made from skimmed milk powder, whey powder, and vegetable fats, mostly coconut oil and palm oil . </P> <P> Humans used oil palms as far as 5,000 years back; in the late--1800s, archaeologists discovered a substance that they concluded was originally palm oil in a tomb at Abydos dating back to 3,000 BCE . It is believed that traders brought oil palm to Egypt . </P> <P> Palm oil from E. guineensiss has long been recognized in West and Central African countries, and is widely used as a cooking oil . European merchants trading with West Africa occasionally purchased palm oil for use as a cooking oil in Europe . </P>

How to get palm oil from palm tree