26/04/2010 (The Star Online), Moscow - Malaysian Palm Oil Council (MPOC) reiterated that palm oil is safe for consumption as well as the environment despite the negative news on palm oil, chief executive officer Tan Sri Dr Yusof Basiron said.

“Claims of negative health effect of palm oil was initiated by soybean producers in the mid-80s in order to protect interest of market share in the US,” he said recently at the Malaysia-Russia Palm Oil Trade Fair and Seminar 2010 (POTS 2010) here.

Basiron said the “public was misled” by allegation that saturated fat raised blood cholesterol level in the body, leading to hear diseases. He said the semi solid appearance of palm oil was also being claimed by soft oil producers as not healthy for human consumption.

“Such claims subsided after research found that trans fatty acid formed during hydrogenation process have more adverse effect on health than saturated fats” he said, adding that many researches have been done and found palm oil was safe for consumption.

Basiron said the findings on palm oil were backed by research, journals and data including the American Journal of Clinical Nutrition.

Going forward, Basiron said MPOC may publish more or translate some researches or journals to the Russian language to keep its counterpart updated.

In a different session, Basiron also fielded questions regarding the environmental issue by the Russian counterpart.

He said the local palm industry had been questioned especially by the European union on the sustainability of palm oil production for food and biodiesel applications.

“We were also been alleged to have destructed the orang utans, forests and loss of biodiversity by NGOs.

“These allegations are baseless as Malaysia has ample permanent forest reserve for biodiversity and conservation purposes,” Basiron said.

He stressed that oil palm were cultivated on legal agriculture land, outside the permanent forest reserve.

Basiron said new plantings were done on land that was legally gazette as agricultural land, 100% sustainable and were all licensed and registered.

Basiron said Malaysia currently had 22 Roundtable on Sustainable Palm Oil (RSPO) certified mills and certified sustainable palm oil production.

“Malaysian palm oil is produced using sustainable and good agricultural practices. Malaysian producers are also active through the RSPO certification processes. “Malaysia will however continue to be the most reliable supplier of palm oil in the world markets and supported by its technical and quality benchmarks,” Basiron said.