Red Palm Olein vs Red Palm Oil - What's the difference?

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RogueRose

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I was looking at a supplier and they had both and the Olein is on special for the same price. Is this better for some applications? Does anyone know the difference?
 
I was looking at a supplier and they had both and the Olein is on special for the same price. Is this better for some applications? Does anyone know the difference?

I don't have the answer to your specific question but... Is the red palm oil your are going to use unrefined? If so, it smells so bad in soap... Hmmm how do I know this? If the oil you are asking about is like Carotino it will work AMAZING in your soaps and add a cool orangish yellow nut also a smoothness that so many people like, me too.

I'll leave the answer to the experts here though.
 
I was looking at a supplier and they had both and the Olein is on special for the same price. Is this better for some applications? Does anyone know the difference?
I've never heard of palmolein, but then I don't use palm oils, so don't look at them.

I compared the two oils in SoapCalc, and palmolein has more oleic, a touch more linoleic and less palmitic, so it's going to be somewhat softer and more conditioning than RPO. I suspect the palmolein is white while RPO is orange... and stays orange in soap, fairly bright too, the one time I used it, a couple of years ago.

btw, this orange color is using only 10% RBO....


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Palm olein (and shea olein, etc.) is one of the products created when a fat is carefully cooled so the high melt point fats crystallize into solid form and are removed by filtering or settling.

The high melt point fats are sometimes called stearins (palm stearin, shea stearin, etc) and have a higher % of stearic and palmitic acids.

The liquid that remains after the crystallized stuff is removed is higher in oleic and linoleic acid than the original fat. This is is the "olein" fat -- meaning the fat that is higher in oleic acid.

The saponification value and fatty acid profile will be different for palm olein than for regular palm, so you can't directly substitute one for the other.
 
Palm olein (and shea olein, etc.) is one of the products created when a fat is carefully cooled so the high melt point fats crystallize into solid form and are removed by filtering or settling.

The high melt point fats are sometimes called stearins (palm stearin, shea stearin, etc) and have a higher % of stearic and palmitic acids.

The liquid that remains after the crystallized stuff is removed is higher in oleic and linoleic acid than the original fat. This is is the "olein" fat -- meaning the fat that is higher in oleic acid.

The saponification value and fatty acid profile will be different for palm olein than for regular palm, so you can't directly substitute one for the other.

DeeAnna to the rescue :wave:
 
You're welcome! I puzzled on this for some time myself, and I was glad to finally learn what that "stearin" and "olein" stuff meant. You can separate a number of fats into liquid and solid parts -- coconut oil, lard, palm, and shea are a few.

This separation business originally got started to supply the candle making industry. Candle makers wanted the hard, waxy stearins, so there was quite a demand for stearins back in the day before electricity. The liquid oleins glutted the market and soapmakers, always looking for cheap ingredients, ended up with them. I suppose that might still be true today, but to a far lesser degree. --D
 

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