Studies on an alleged toxic hazard of heat‐bleached palm oil

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Abstract
Summary: It has recently been suggested that the high‐temperature heat‐bleaching procedure sometimes used to decolorize palm oil for use in margarine and similar products could lead to the oil becoming contaminated with (unspecified) toxic substances, these being derived by thermal degradation of the orange‐red carotenoids originally present. Several of the non‐glyceride constituents of such an oil have been identified (as squalene, hentriacontane, and various known sterols and triterpenes: all common food constituents) while degradation products of the type said to be present have been sought without success. In addition, the degree to which one of the known carotenoid thermal‐degradation products is removed from the oil during the usual refining procedure has been measured and the oil's toxicology has been briefly examined. Neither the results obtained here, nor the allied data reported by others and noted herein, appear to provide any evidence in support of the above suggestion.