1/8/05 KUALA LUMPUR (Dow Jones)--Palm oil's nascent advancement into thesoyoil-dominated U.S food market has stirred up renewed friction betweensome U.S. consumer rights activists and the palm oil industry, reviving awar of words that was prevalent some two decades ago.

The Center for Science in the Public Interest, or CSPI, has denounced palmoil as a "cruel oil" that promotes heart disease and the destruction ofrainforests - remarks that palm oil industry officials have, in turn,dismissed as "unjustified" and "pathetic."

The Washington D.C.-based CSPI is a non-profit health advocacyorganization founded in 1971 that conducts research and advocacy programsin areas of nutrition and food safety. Its Nutrition Action Healthletteris the largest circulated health newsletter in North America.

The latest debate over the virtues and dangers of palm oil stems from arecent controversy surrounding the use of partially hydrogenated vegetableoils.

Hydrogenation is a process of adding hydrogen to liquid oils, includingsoyoil, to make them more solid and stable to meet the requirements offood manufacturers.

A staple ingredient in myriad food products like cakes and cookies fordecades, partially hydrogenated oils gained notoriety lately after it wasfound that they contain trans-fatty acid, which leads to increased risk ofheart disease.

Amid growing public outcry about the presence of trans fat in the Americandiet, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration in mid-2003 issued aregulation making it compulsory from January 2006 for the amount of transfats to be stated on nutrition labels of all packaged foods.

Manufacturers have since been busy searching for alternative oils that aretrans-fat free.

Palm oil industry officials have touted the tropical oil as a fittingsubstitute, not only because it is naturally semisolid and hence, doesn'trequire hydrogenation, but also because it is the world's the cheapestedible oil to produce.

Consequently, palm oil's market share in the U.S. has been rapidlyexpanding. Number one producer, Malaysia, reported exports to the U.S. atabout 270,000 metric tons in the first half of 2005, compared with 179,000tons in January-June 2004 and 103,000 tons in January-June 2003.

Alarmed by palm oil's rising popularity, CSPI recently published a reportcondemning the commodity, conjuring up memories of a now infamous face-offin the mid-1980s between activists led by millionaire Phil Sokolof and thepalm oil industry.

Bad For Health And Environment

CSPI was instrumental in lobbying the U.S. government to legislate againsttrans fats, but it is now equally critical of any switch to palm oil as analternative.

CSPI said by shifting from partially hydrogenated soyoil to palm oil, foodmakers would be merely replacing one unhealthy oil for another, thatthough not as bad, is still harmful.

To support its position, CSPI has cited medical research and studies,including analyses done by British researchers in 1997 and Dutchscientists in 2003.

According to the 1997 analysis, palmitic acid, a saturated fatty acid thatis a constituent of palm oil, raises total blood cholesterol levels, CSPIsaid.

The 2003 analysis found that palmitic acid also increases the ratio oftotal blood cholesterol to HDL, or good, cholesterol more than othersaturated fatty acids. The higher the ratio, the greater the risk of heartdisease.

"Perhaps the most damning indictment of palm oil comes from a naturalexperiment on the island nation of Mauritius," CSPI said in a reportco-authored by executive director Michael F. Jacobson and ecologist EllieBrown.

It said the population of Mauritius had suffered high rates of heartdisease in the 1980s until a government decision in 1987 to switchsubsidies on oil made mostly of palm oil to one made mostly of soyoilresulted in a reduction in blood cholesterol levels.

Statements that palm oil contains no trans fat "are literally true, butmislead people into thinking that palm oil is positively healthy," CSPIsaid.

CSPI, which says it doesn't accept funding from government or theindustry, urged food processors to avoid palm oil and opt instead forsunflower oil, canola oil, corn oil or a trans fat-free mixture of fullyhydrogenated soyoil with liquid soyoil.

It also called for a boycott of palm oil on ethical grounds, linking theexpansion of plantations in Malaysia and Indonesia with destruction oftropical rainforests and wildlife.

Some 12,600 square miles of rainforests in Malaysia and Indonesia havebeen deforested for oil palm plantations, CSPI said, citing studies byconversation watchdogs.

It added that illegal wildfires to clear land for oil palm burned about37,100 square miles of rainforests in the 1990s. Another 29,000 squaremiles of forest land have been set aside for future plantations, CSPIsaid.

It said the loss of rainforests is threatening the survival of fiveendangered species in the region - the Sumatran tiger, the Borneoorangutan, the Sumatran orangutan, the Asian elephant and the Sumatranrhinoceros.

"Consumers should understand that a seemingly small decision in thiscountry - what kind of cookie, cracker or hand lotion to buy - can havemajor consequences on the other side of the world," Brown said in astatement.

In a show of support for CSPI, about a dozen scientists from renowned U.S.universities including Harvard and Yale have written to the U.S.Department of Health and Human Services, urging the department toencourage food processors to avoid palm oil.

Palm Oil Producers Call It a Smear Campaign

Stung by the criticisms, the palm oil industry has hit back, calling theCSPI's remarks flawed and part of a smear campaign.

The government-funded Malaysian Palm Oil Board, which regulates the palmoil industry and conducts research and development on the crop, recentlyissued a statement, while the Malaysian Palm Oil Promotion Council, astate-funded agency that conducts promotional campaigns in user countries,wrote an open letter to CSPI.

The two industry bodies said the CSPI, in preparing its report, haddisregarded hundreds of publications that show palm oil as safe andhealthy.

"What is really pathetic is that a group of well-learned men of sciencehave seen fit to endorse this document by lending their names and therebycompromising their scientific credibility," MPOB said, referring to theCSPI report's contributors and endorsers.

MPOB said CSPI had chosen to highlight palm oil's saturated palmitic acidcontent, without giving due consideration to the oil's other constituents.

Citing a 2004 review in the American Journal of Clinical Nutrition, theMPOB said dietary studies have found palm oil to be also rich in oleicacid, a monounsaturated fatty acid.

The combination of palmitic and oleic acid renders palm oil a neutral fatfor cholesterol metabolism, MPOB says.

Responding to the Mauritius study linking palm oil to cholesterolproblems, MPOB said palm oil use has been minimal all along in the islandnation. The FAO Food Balance Sheet of Mauritius 1987-92 shows palm oilaccounting for under 6% of total oils and fats consumed with soyoil at83%.

Taking a swipe at the oils recommended by CSPI, MPOB has cautionedconsumers to be wary as those oils may be genetically modified.

MPOPC Chief Executive Haron Siraj echoed most of MPOB's comments and alsodefended the industry's land utilization and environmental record.

He said in the open letter that palm oil is a well-planned industry withsound environmental practices, citing the Roundtable on Sustainable PalmOil - an initiative setup in 2004 by palm oil producing companies andconservation groups - as evidence of its seriousness on such issues.

The destruction of nature and wildlife, meanwhile, has happened muchearlier in developed countries, partly to make way for soybean crops,which require completely flattened areas, he said.

Although palm oil accounts for 4% of total oilcrop area, it contributes28% of global vegetable output. In contrast, soyoil takes 41% of totalarea to contribute the same amount, Haron said.

"Which oilcrop is more productive, yielding far more oil on less land goeswithout saying," he added.

Even as the debate rages on, which oil eventually gains the confidence ofU.S consumers, come 2006, remains to be seen.