Palm Oil: Nutrients, What Research Shows and Safety

Palm oil is pressed from the fruit of the oil palm (Elaeis guineensis, family Arecaceae). One review says it supplies about 40% of traded vegetable oil and is eaten daily by over three billion people. [16] This page covers palm oil as a food. Palm kernel oil, red palm oil and tocotrienol supplements are different products, and we keep them apart. It looks at health evidence only; farming and environmental questions are outside what this page judges.

Read this first

• Palm oil is about half saturated fat. USDA lists 49.3 g saturated fat per 100 g, which is 34% of the Daily Value in one tablespoon. [1] WHO names palm oil among sources of saturated fat and advises keeping saturated fat to 10% or less of daily energy. [12]
• A pooled analysis of clinical trials found palm oil raised LDL ("bad") cholesterol compared with vegetable oils low in saturated fat. The rise was 0.24 mmol/L overall, and larger in randomized trials. [2]
• Not everyone reads the evidence the same way. A Spanish expert consensus paid for by a palm oil foundation concluded moderate palm oil in a healthy diet poses no risk. [3] A systematic review found the evidence on palm oil and heart disease too weak to support or refute a link. [4]
• Refined vegetable oils, palm oil included, can contain process contaminants (3-MCPD and glycidyl esters). EFSA found adults not above its tolerable daily intake, but high consumers among younger people slightly were. [7]
• Allergy: palm oil is not on the list of major food allergens. For trouble breathing or swelling of the face or throat after any food, call 911 (or your local emergency number). [15]

What is in it (USDA values)

The values below are for palm oil (USDA FoodData Central item 171015, SR Legacy). [1] The serving column is the USDA household portion of 1 tablespoon, 13.6 g. Serving values are the per-100-g values multiplied by 0.136.

% Daily Value uses the FDA 2016 Daily Values; values vary with the palm variety, refining and fractionation. USDA also lists vitamin D values for this item that look implausible for an oil, so we do not use them here. [1] A 2015 review says palmitic acid, a saturated fatty acid, is the main fat in refined palm oil. [10]

Plant compounds: palm oil is a source of tocotrienols, a form of vitamin E. The USDA item lists only alpha-tocopherol. Trials of tocotrienol-rich supplements, for example in people with diabetes and kidney damage, tested concentrated products, not palm oil as a food, and one such trial was small (45 people, 8 weeks). [9]

What research says

Eaten as food vs taken as a supplement. The LDL finding is for palm oil as a food compared with other oils. Tocotrienol supplements are separate products. [2] [9]

How much is a normal serving

The USDA household portion is 1 tablespoon (13.6 g), about 120 kcal and 6.7 g saturated fat. [1] That is information from USDA data, not a prescription. WHO advises saturated fat of 10% or less of daily energy and total fat of 30% or less. [12] The AHA's 2017 advisory recommends lowering saturated fat and replacing it with unsaturated fats. [11]

Safety, allergy and medicines

• Saturated fat and LDL: see the table. The AHA and WHO both advise limiting saturated fat. [11] [12] Whether palm oil in moderate amounts matters depends on the rest of the diet, which is why experts disagree. [2] [3]
• Process contaminants: 3-MCPD and glycidyl esters are process contaminants of refined vegetable oils, and one review says palm oil has the highest 3-MCPD levels among vegetable oils. [8] [3] EFSA's 2018 update set a group tolerable daily intake of 2 micrograms per kg body weight a day for 3-MCPD and its fatty acid esters, found it not exceeded in adults, and found it slightly exceeded by high consumers in younger age groups, especially infants fed only formula. [7] The abstract does not say which foods drive that exposure.
• Heated oil: in a study of cooking fumes, sunflower oil produced the most aldehydes, and rapeseed and palm oil produced relatively less. [13] We did not read a reliable smoke point for palm oil, so we give none.
• Calories: 884 kcal per 100 g. [1]
• Vitamin E: the NHS says 540 mg a day or less from supplements is unlikely to cause harm; that is about supplements, not oil. [14]
• Allergy: palm oil is not among the nine major allergens (milk, eggs, fish, shellfish, tree nuts, peanuts, wheat, soy, sesame). [15] We found no study of palm oil allergy.
• Pregnancy, children, kidney disease, diabetes, medicines: we found no source that tests palm oil as a food for these, so we make no claim. People with high LDL cholesterol or on cholesterol medicine can ask a clinician how much saturated fat to aim for.

Choosing, storing and food safety

• Packaged foods list it as "palm oil" or "palm fat"; check labels if you are limiting saturated fat. See added sugars, sodium and saturated fat on labels.
• Keep oil closed, cool and away from light. We did not read a palm-oil-specific storage source.
• Sustainability labels are about farming, not health. We did not review them.

Related pages

• Saturated, unsaturated and trans fats explained
• Which cooking fat to choose: what health bodies say
• Coconut oil
• Smoke points and cooking with oil
• Added sugars, sodium and saturated fat on labels
• Foods for cholesterol and heart health