Red Palm Oil versus Conventionally Refined Palm Oil: A Cradle-to-Gate Carbon Footprint on Mass, Carotene and Vitamin A Functional Units

Red palm oil (RPO) retains the provitamin A carotene that conventional refining largely removes, but its life cycle burden has not been quantified. We report an ISO 14067 cradle-to-gate carbon footprint of RPO built from pilot-plant data on Indonesian crude palm oil, with process energy estimated from equipment specifications, and compare it indicatively with refined, bleached and deodorized palm oil (RBDPO) on three functional units: 1 kg of oil, 1 mg of carotene and 1 mg of retinol activity equivalent (RAE). Across the scenario grid the footprint is 1.28–6.47 kg CO2-eq kg−1, of which 93–99% arises before the refinery; plantation location within Indonesia moves it by 25.4 kg CO2-eq kg−1 against 0.054 for deodorization scale and heat source. Per kilogram, RPO is 0.46 kg CO2-eq below RBDPO at the reference case, but the soapstock allocation convention alone reverses the difference, so the oils cannot be ranked. Per milligram of carotene, RBDPO with its residual carotene carries 13–273 times the RPO burden. Per milligram of RAE, RBDPO fortified to the Indonesian minimum carries 1.5–3.1 times the RPO burden even with a burden-free fortificant, and parity would require fortification at 69–140 international units per gram. Only climate change is assessed.