Editorial: From Palm to Plate, from Awareness to Action -Toward Sustainable Palm Oil Supply Chains and Consumption

Sui Kiat Chang^1,2*Ágoston Temesi³Bradley George Ridoutt⁴

• ¹Department of Allied Health Science, Faculty of Science, Universiti Tunku Abdul Rahman, Kampar, Malaysia
• ²Universiti Tunku Abdul Rahman, Kampar, Malaysia
• ³Hungarian University of Agriculture and Life Sciences, Gödöllő, Hungary
• ⁴Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organisation, Canberra, Australia

The UN Sustainable Development Goals offer a comprehensive summary of global problems of the modern world and their solutions, but the practical realization of these is a much more complicated issue (United Nations, 2015). A striking example of this is the palm oil production system. On the one hand, the rather contradictious consequences of palm oil production on the environment are well documented and known in academia. In fact, the increasing production and export is a strategic question for economic development and sovereignty for numerous developing countries, generating resources for the socio-economic catch-up to the developed countries (Meijaard et al., 2020). Palm oil has a few applications in giving foods desirable characteristics such as improved shelf-life and thermal stability and may offer certain nutritional health benefits. Moreover, in non-nutritive applications, palm oil has numerous uses in beauty products and cosmetics, cleaning agents, biofuels, and more (Sulaiman et al., 2022). This is why the palm oil production and consumption topic are very complex and can be analyzed only on the basis of a system approach, taking into consideration a wide array of factors, influencing the actual behavior of different actors. Some palm-oil-producing countries have developed a system for the promotion of sustainable production practices ('Roundtable for Sustainable Palm Oil', RSPO), but the level of knowledge and influence of this system on consumer behavior and purchasing decisions are unknown (Abdul Majid et al., 2021).Currently, there is a lack of such a comprehensive platform, where the various results of production could presented. The goal of this research topic is to create a channel 36 communication for palm-oil-related research results, applying a holistic approach, on the 37 "farm to fork" concept. oil and sunflower oil as a potential substitute for palm oil. Authors reported that the 35% FH 87 rapeseed oil blend showed rheological properties closest to palm mid-fraction (PMF), the 88 control sample. This indicate that the 35% FH rapeseed blend could be a partial substitute in 89 food applications where rheology is critical (e.g., spreads, baked goods). While some blends 90 mimicked palm oil's behavior, the study concluded that full replacement is only viable to a 91 limited extent from a rheological perspective. Further research is needed to optimize cost, 92 scalability, and sensory properties for commercial use. These results addressed the urgent need 93 for sustainable alternatives to palm oil due to its deforestation and ecological concerns as 94 outlined by Ostfeld and Reiner (2024). In short, the food industry can't fully abandon palm oil 95 yet, but this study identifies a promising partial alternative while underscoring the complex 96 trade-offs between sustainability, functionality, and economics. 97 98 To summarize, the results of the above-mentioned studies and reviews represent some new 99 relevant data on the palm-oil-related research results, applying a holistic approach, based on 100 the "farm to fork" approach. Despite all the existing literature and evidence related to this 101 important topic, the papers published in this special topic clearly show that there are still many 102