Palm Stearin — Frequently Asked Questions

Its saturated palmitic chains. Saturated fatty acids produce a hard, opaque, slow-wearing soap bar with low moisture pickup, where unsaturated chains give a soft bar that dissolves quickly. Stearin is therefore the standard hardening component blended against softer, faster-lathering lauric oils such as coconut or palm kernel, and the ratio between them sets bar hardness against lather speed.

Commonly 48 or below, with harder fractions running lower. Iodine value measures unsaturation, so a low figure confirms the saturated character that gives the material its hardness and its resistance to oxidation. The slip melting point generally falls between 44 and 56 degrees Celsius depending on how far fractionation has been taken.

Yes, under segregated, mass balance and book and claim models. The three differ in the degree of physical traceability and in cost, so the required model should be specified at enquiry rather than requesting certification generically, since a book and claim credit will not satisfy a buyer expecting segregated material.

They come from different parts of the fruit and are not interchangeable. Palm stearin is the hard fraction of palm oil, from the fruit pulp, and is dominated by sixteen-carbon palmitic acid. Palm kernel stearin is the hard fraction of palm kernel oil, from the seed, and is dominated by twelve-carbon lauric acid, giving a much sharper melt and far faster lather.