Published on
Updated
Reading 3 mins.
As COP27 unfolds in Egypt, nearly 196 countries are trying to find solutions to the challenges of climate change. This is the case of an American start-up which has just announced the marketing of synthetic palm oil for 2023. But is this really a sustainable solution?
Palm oil: a diverse use but a very controversial product
In spreads, chips or even instant stock cubes, its use is very diverse. Palm oil is designated as the most consumed in the world, far ahead of soybean oil, rapeseed oil and sunflower oil. If the ingredient obtained from a hot extraction of palm fruit pulp has had a bad press for many years, its consumption has not declined at all in recent years. Estimated at 75 million metric tons for the 2021/2022 campaign, it was 67 million metric tons in 2017/2018, according to Statista.
According to the American start-up C16 Biosciences, palm oil is present in half of the products on the shelves of American supermarkets. If its use is so developed, it is because its cost is lower compared to other vegetable oils, allowing manufacturers to drive down the price of their final product.
Palm oil production is killing the planet…
Catastrophe, disaster… There are many ways to express the consequences of the palm oil industry on the environment. According to the WWF, Indonesia and Malaysia provide 85% of world production. The agricultural areas devoted to palm groves are constantly expanding: in 2020, in Malaysia, there were 5.3 million hectares when they were “only” 3.3 million in 2000.
The catch is that oil palms enjoy the same growing conditions as those in tropical forests. We understand better why deforestation is controversial and is seen as one of the first serious consequences of the production of this cheap ingredient. In addition to soil pollution, this agriculture also “eats” the space of certain species such as orangutans and elephants. Always according to WWF, an oil palm plantation reduces the rate of biodiversity by at least 90% compared to a primary tropical forest. The other impact of palm oil production is the increase in greenhouse gases. It is estimated that deforestation is responsible for 15 to 20%.
Sustainable palm oil: a long-term solution?
Faced with these alarming findings, a New York start-up decided to consider the future. Not by eliminating palm oil but by imagining a new formula that is totally harmless to the environment and biodiversity.
You know meat…meatless? From now on, there is a palm oil but which does not contain palm oil. Since 2018, the company with the very scientific name C16 Biosciences has been developing a fermentation process based on food waste to produce an alternative to palm oil. It is a precise selection of a strain of yeast which allows to drive the process and to obtain a kind of synthetic palm oil.
In 2020, this innovative company – created by a former Harvard business student, a biological engineer and a doctor of physical sciences – produced only ten kilos of its “fake” palm oil (containing as many fatty acids as its model). But that was without counting on the notoriety of Bill Gates, whose foundation invested twenty million dollars to support the project.
With this help, C16 Biosciences has just announced the commercialization of its “palm oil without palm oil” for the beginning of next year. The company specializing in the development of oils and fats was able to commit to such an objective after having reached an industrial production estimated at 50,000 liters of its “palmless”. Its use is imagined in a whole host of products, from food to household products. However, the start-up intends to use it first, in the beauty shelves. It is not surprising if the commercial adventure starts in this department because according to the American WWFpalm oil can also be found in lipsticks and soaps – to name just a few examples.