Exogenous ethylene application on postharvest oil palm fruit bunches improves crude palm oil quality

Quality and food safety are of paramount importance to the palm oil industry. In this work, we investigated the practicability of ethylene gas exogenous application on post-harvested oil palm fruit bunches to improve the crude palm oil (CPO) quality. The bunches were first exposed to ethylene gas for 24 hr to induce abscission of palm fruits from bunches. The detached fruits were then subjected to heat treatment, mechanical extraction, clarification and drying to produce CPO. Critical quality parameters of CPO produced, that is free fatty acid, deterioration of the bleachability index and triacylglycerol showed improvement with ethylene gas treatment. Contaminant content that is phosphorus, chloride, iron, and copper also showed a reduction in the CPO derived from ethylene-treated bunches. These findings corresponded with low levels of contaminants such as 3-monochloropropane-1,2-diol esters and glycidyl esters in refined oil. The implementation strategy and practicability of this method is herein proposed and discussed. Ethylene application not only improves the CPO quality, but could potentially enhance the process sustainability of palm oil mills.