Palm oil develops high free fatty acids during extraction and processing. The fruit also contains active lipase which hydrolyses the palm oil into free fatty acids. A high content of free fatty acids in palm oil results in a fermented like smell. The palm oil contains palmitic acid (44%) and oleic acid(44%) as the major fatty acids. Other fatty acids are linoleic acid, stearic acid and myristic acid. The ffa content of the oil is taken as the index for its quality for the reason cited above.
.... and adding to the previous comment, hydrolysis creates also mono- and diglycerides, which greatly affect crystallization and therefore Downstream processing.