Qua Kiat Seng charts the evolution of vegetable oil production
ALTHOUGH I started my career as a Refinery Manager at Lever Brothers Malaysia in 1974, I was still fascinated to discover that vegetable oils, or more correctly seed oils, only became a major part of our diet in the last century. We know the ancient oils like olive oil, sesame oil, groundnut oil, coconut oil and palm oil were cultivated and appreciated for their flavour and aroma whilst animal fats such as tallow and lard were relied on for cooking. From the 1950s rape, soya, and sunflower oil underwent rapid production increases and by the late 1980s the dominant vegetable oils in world markets were soya, palm, sunflower and rape. So how did these vegetable oils find their way into your kitchen?