KUALA LUMPUR: Malaysian food manufacturers, as well as the palm oil industry, must take the findings seriously by the Hong Kong Consumer Council (HKCC) to begin mitigating 3-monochloro-propanediol esters (MCPDE) and glycidyl esters (GE) as soon as possible.
Malaysian Palm Oil Board (MPOB) director-general Dr Ahmad Parveez Ghulam Kadir said food manufacturers must demand palm oil containing lower 3-MCPDE and GE from the suppliers to accept their products.
"Similarly, refinery should be firm for requesting the mills to supply CPO (crude palm oil) with lower chloride content (2.0 parts per million) in enabling them to reduce 3-MCPDE in refined palm oil.
"Alternatively, refineries could pay less for the CPO with high chlorine as it will be used to pay the cost of washing the CPO in the refinery.
"The issues of 3-MCPDE and GE in palm oil will no longer be a concern if all parties understand their roles in ensuring palm oil meets high quality and safety standards.
"MPOB has taken proactive measures since 2009 to conduct research and development (R&D) activities in tackling food safety issues associated with 3-MCPDE and GE in palm oil," he said in a statement today.
The HKCC has claimed that five out of 60 pre-packaged biscuits made of palm oil contain high glycidol in recent news reports.
It was also reported that 75 per cent of the samples also contained 3-MCPD.
Ahmad Parveez said the board's collaborations with technology providers had demonstrated the capability of installing CPO washing systems at both milling and refining.
"In the light of GE, the presence of this contaminant in palm oil can be mitigated through post-refining at a lower temperature.
"From the commercial trials, CPO washing and post-refining have proven to yield palm oil with reduced 3-MCPDE and GE contents, respectively," he said.
He said the Malaysian government has to date granted a substantial amount of funding for the amount of RM32.4 million for the palm oil industry to carry out commercial trials (large scale trials) in addressing 3-MCPDE and GE in palm oil.
"MPOB is entrusted to manage the research grant and monitor the progression of the commercial trials at selected mills and refineries," he said.
The agency approved sixteen companies from the plantation industries and commodities to participate in the commercial trial which included 10 mills and six refineries.
"The mills are mainly responsible for reducing chlorine content in CPO, while refineries are tasked to mitigate 3-MCPDE and GE in refined palm oil," he added.
