ABSTRACT
Fats and oils have been recovered for thousands of years from oil-bearing seeds, nuts, beans, fruits, and animal tissues. These raw materials have been and continue to be important ingredients for foods, cosmetics, lubricants, and chemicals. The extracted fats and oils vary from pleasant smelling products that contain few impurities to very offensive smelling, highly impure materials. Fortunately, researchers have developed technologies for processing fats and oils products to make them more suitable for foods and other applications. Developments in lipid processing technology have produced ingredients that have been instrumental in the development of many of the current food products available that provide the functional and nutritional requirements of discerning and better-informed consumers. Processes have been developed to make them flavorless, odorless, and lighter in color; modify their melting behavior; rearrange the molecular structure; remove potential disease-causing impurities; capture possible harmful materials, and effect other changes to make them more desirable for their intended applications.
