What is Palm Oil?
Palm oil is made from the fruit pulp of a group of tropical plants called oil palms (a little circular, but that is their name). Palm oil is a very common formula ingredient. Only one company, Abbott Nutrition, makers of the Similac® brand line, does not use palm oil.
Worldwide, palm oil is literally everywhere, including most packaged foods, cosmetics, and detergents. While Formula Sense associates strive for ingredient neutrality, we take exception with palm oil due to its potential nutritional weaknesses and the serious social, environmental, and economic issues surrounding its use.
Why Is Palm Oil Added to Infant Formula?
Palm oil is particularly rich in two fatty acids that are also abundant in human milk: palmitic and oleic acid. In nutrition, we consider they type of fat in a food. Fats are made up of fatty acids, which are long chains of carbon molecules where energy is stored. While the term fatty acid may not be familiar, you may have heard of unsaturated, saturated, and omega-3 fats. Technically, these are all specific types of fatty acids, not simply fats. Dropping the acid is a particularly good use of simple nutrition language.
Human milk changes continuously in response to mom’s diet and the age of the infant being fed. While much as been learned, we are still a long way from a full understanding about the fat profile of human milk.
Possible Nutritional Weakness of Palm Oil
Some research suggests that the oleic acid in palm oils causes harder stools (poop) and may reduce how much calcium can be absorbed. A 17-country study concluded that infants consuming palm oil-free formula had softer stools than a formula containing it. However, Abbott Nutrition, the makers of Similac, designed and sponsored the study, thus bias is a significant weakness of the study.
At the same time, a European pediatric health professional society published a position paper in May 2019 stating, “There is insufficient evidence to suggest that PO [palm oil] should be avoided as a source of fat in infant formulas for health reasons.”
Other Weaknesses of Palm Oil as a Formula Ingredient
While palm oil is a good source of palmitic and oleic fatty acids, its use comes with serious social, environmental, and economic considerations, which are topics that Formula Sense associates wish were better known by the public. If you would like to learn more about palm oil, consider reading the Guardian’s (a British newspaper with an online, US version) excellent series and interactive on economic and environmental aspects of palm oil. The Orangutan Foundation has a section on its website about how the palm oil plantations are causing rainforest destruction, which is the main threat to the survival of orangutans. Lastly, the economic impacts of palm oil are complex, as pointed out in this article in the Economist.
Regulations and Safety
The total amount of fat in infant formula is regulated; however, the proportion of fatty acids are not. Recent studies in Europe and South America have found significant variation in the overall proportions of fatty acids among infant formula brands. The consequences of this are not known.
The US FDA requires that infant formula have between 30 and 54 % of its calories from fat or about 3.3 to 6.0 grams per 100 calories of prepared formula. However, most US formulas have between 4.7 and 5.3 grams of fat per 100 calories and provide around 43 to 48% calories from fat.
The European Commission requires between 4.4 and 6.0 grams of fat per 100 calories of prepared formula. They prohibit use of cotton and sesame seed oils in infant formulas.
Dietary Considerations
Since palm oil comes from a plant, it is technically vegan. However, some vegans choose to avoid it because its production is involved in the use and abuse of animals.