ABSTRACT
Fats and oils have been recovered for thousands of years from oil bearing seeds, nuts, beans, fruits, and animal tissues. These raw materials serve a vital function in the United States and world economics for both food and nonfood applications. Edible fats and oils are the raw materials for oils, shortenings, margarines, and other specialty or tailored products that are functional ingredients in food products prepared by food processors, restaurants, and in the home. The major nonfood product uses for fats and oils are soaps, detergents, paints, varnish, animal feeds, resins, plastics, lubricants, fatty acids, and other inedible products. Interestingly, many of the raw materials for industrial purposes are by-products of fats and oils processing for food products; however, some oils are produced exclusively for technical uses due to their special compositions. Castor, linseed, tall, and tung oils are all of vegetable origin and are produced for industrial uses only. The USDA Economic Research Service statistics indicate that, of the 27.472 billion pounds of edible fats and oils used in the year 2000, 76.6% was for food products and 23.4% was for nonfood products [16].
