Harvesting and processing of palm oil

A young lady carry a bunch of palm fruits

Processing of crude palm oil: to refined oil involves ten systematic steps

Step One: Identification of Ripe Palm Fruit.

Harvesting the palm fruit from its tree

The palm fruit harvester has to search for the ripped palm fruit. The ripe fruit bunches of palms are commonly referred to as Fresh Fruit Bunches (FFBs). When the fruit on the oil palm turns bright red-orange, it indicates that it's ripe and ready to be harvested.

Step Two: Harvesting of ripe palm fruit

The harvesters climbed the palm tree with a climber and cut the fruits with a spear, axe, and cutlass.

Step Three: Collection of harvested palm fruit

The harvested fruits will be collected from the trees and taken to the refinery site.

Step Four: Bunch Chopping

A woman sorting out the palm fruits

The palm fruit will be chopped off from the main bunch. The fresh fruit bunch consists of fruit embedded in spikelet growing on a main stem. Manual threshing is achieved by cutting the fruit-laden spikelet from the bunch stem with an axe or machete.

Step Five: Fruit Fermentation

Water will be sprinkled on the chopped fruits, covered, and kept for at most three days to ferment.

Step Six: Fruits Sorting

The fruits will be sorted after a few fermentations. Sorting of the fruits can be done by picking and then separating the fruit from the spikelet by hand. A large amount can be separated on a locally made mat that is mounted on a platform, and the palm fruits with scales will be placed on the platform and rubbed with both hands. The palm fruit will remain on the mat, while the scales will fall under the platform through the mat.

Step Seven: Fruit sterilization (cooking or steaming)

This is where the palm fruit is discharged into a container and sterilized using high-temperature wet-heat treatment of loose fruit. Cooking normally uses hot water; sterilization uses pressurized steam.

Step Eight: Threshing

Women preparing the fruit for palm oil extraction

This is the process where young men use their feet to thresh the sterilized palm fruits in the pit

Step Nine: Scooping

Hot water is first poured on the mashed fruit in the pit, and cold water is also poured in the pit to dilute the oil in the water. The dilution (addition of water) provides a barrier, causing the heavy solids to fall to the bottom of the container while the lighter oil droplets flow through the watery mixture to the top when heat is applied to break the emulsion (oil suspended in water with the aid of gums and resins).

The oil is collected by scooping it from the top of the water and pouring it into a container already on the fire.

Step Ten: Sterilization of the Oil

The oil and the water will be heated, and the oil will float on top of the water. The container will be removed from the fire, and we will wait for the temperature to fall. The oil is then collected and poured into an open container. At this stage, the oil is ready for consumption.