Is Palm Oil Bad for You?

The main regulatory concern is a pair of refining contaminants. The FDA says 3-MCPD esters and glycidyl esters can form in edible oils when they are heated to very high temperatures during industrial refining, and that the highest concentrations typically occur in refined palm oil and palm olein oil, though they are also found in other refined vegetable oils and in refined fish oils. The Joint FAO/WHO Expert Committee on Food Additives reported that 3-MCPD ester levels in refined oils rise from rapeseed to soybean, sunflower, safflower and walnut oil, with palm oil highest.

The FDA says rodent studies show 3-MCPD primarily affects the kidney and testes and can cause cancer, that National Toxicology Program research gives clear evidence glycidol is a carcinogen in rodents, and that IARC classifies 3-MCPD as a possible and glycidol as a probable human carcinogen. The expert committee says glycidyl esters are substantially broken down to glycidol in the digestive tract, and concluded that glycidol is a genotoxic compound.

On diet, the Dietary Guidelines for Americans, 2025 to 2030, say that in general saturated fat consumption should not exceed 10 percent of total daily calories, and that significantly limiting highly processed foods will help meet that goal. On labels, the FDA lets products that only sometimes use palm oil list it with wording such as "contains one or more of the following," as in vegetable oil shortening that may contain cottonseed, palm or soybean oil.