Pounding (digestion) and oil extraction are the most tedious and essential operations in traditional palm fruit processing; therefore early efforts concentrated on these tasks. In small scale processing, digestion, the breaking up of the oil-bearing cells of the palm fruit’s mesocarp, is the most labour intensive.
Two methods of fruit maceration common in traditional processing:
• pounding cooked/soaked fruits in large wooden or concrete mortars with a wooden pestle;
• foot trampling the cooked but cold fruits in canoes or specially constructed wooden troughs.