The palm oil industry, long accused of large-scale deforestation, is bracing for another hit to its business: machinery lubricants seeping into the world's most consumed edible oil during processing.
European food companies, including Nestle, have in recent months asked top palm oil producers in Indonesia and Malaysia to cut the amount of mineral oil hydrocarbons found in palm oil, industry officials said.
The solution is to use food-grade lubricants in machines that turn palm fruit into the oil used to make everything from infant formula to chocolate. But such lubricants can cost eight to 10 times more than their petroleum-based or synthetic counterparts and could hurt profit margins, the officials say.
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