• How is palm oil extracted?
  • Palm oil is extracted from fresh fruit bunches (FFB) by a mechanical process, whereby a mill commonly handles 60 to 100 mt per hour of FFB. The palm oil mill of today is based predominantly on concepts developed in the early 1950s (Mongana Report). An average size FFB weighs about 20-30 kg and contains 1500-2000 fruits (Fig. 1).
  • How to produce quality palm oil?
  • To produce quality palm oil, mature palm fruit is needed. Maturity of Oil Palm Fruit Bunches (FFB) is usually determined by the number of loose fruits falling from the bunch 1. Besides, maturity can also be seen from the colour of the fruit from black to orange.
  • What is the main harvest from the oil palm?
  • The main harvest from the oil palm consists of fresh fruit bunches (FFB) from which are obtained a wide variety of products, the chief of which is crude palm oil (CPO) extracted from the mesocarp or flesh of the fruit and palm kernel oil (PKO) extracted from the palm kernel or seed within the fruit.
  • What is in situ quality assessment of intact oil palm fruit bunches?
  • In situ quality assessment of intact oil palm fresh fruit bunches using rapid portable non-contact and non-destructive approach. J. Food Eng. 120 (2014). Makky, M., Soni, P. & Salokhe, V. M. Automatic non-destructive quality inspection system for oil palm fruits. Int. Agrophysics 28 (2014).
  • Can computer vision improve the quality of oil palm fruit?
  • Many studies have been carried out for detecting and classifying the maturity level of oil palm fruit to improve the quality with the use of computer vision. However, most of these studies use datasets in the form of images of oil palm fresh fruit bunches (FFB) with incomplete categorization according to real conditions in palm oil mills.
  • How much does a palm oil FFB weigh?
  • An average size FFB weighs about 20-30 kg and contains 1500-2000 fruits (Fig. 1). The FFBs are harvested according to harvesting cycles and delivered to the mills on the same day. The quality of crude palm oil is dependent on the care taken after harvesting, particularly on the handling of the FFBs. Figure 1.