Crude Palm Oil Quality at the Mill
At the mill, the ripeness of the fruit bunch is graded according to the guidelines set by the Malaysian Palm Oil Board (MPOB). Zero under ripe bunch is the target of the grading standard strongly enforced by MPOB. Work by Tan et al. (1995) has shown that oil extracted from under-ripe or unripe fruits contain high levels of chlorophylls. At high levels, chlorophylls can act as pro-oxidants instead of being an antioxidant and, hence, can affect the quality of crude palm oil. In the same report, the workers also showed that laser-induced fluorescence (LIF) analysis can be used as an alternative to analyzing all the common oxidative and hydrolytic parameters. LIF at 673 nm was indicative of the oxidative quality of crude palm oil. There was also positive correlation between fluorescence intensity and the carotene and the deterioration of bleach ability index of crude palm oil, and the Rancimat induction time of the final refined product.