Fractionated palm oils: emerging roles in the food industry and possible cardiovascular effects

Abstract

The public health debate about fats and human health has been ongoing for a long time. Specifically, the fat types commonly used in the food industry and the techniques used in extracting them are remarkable in terms of human health. Among these, palm oil, which is mainly associated with cardiovascular disease (CVD), is a vegetable oil type that is widely used in the food industry. Moreover, the fractionation of palm oil has become quite common in the food industry when compared to other culinary oils and fats. Fractional crystallization, which has been recently regarded as an alternative to hydrogenization and interesterification methods, has become more popular in edible oil technology, even though it is an ancient method. The main fractions of palm oil are palm olein and palm stearin. Palm oil fractions, which have some pros and cons, are used in edible oils, such as margarine/shortening, as well as bread and cake-like pastry production. Since the fatty acid composition of palm oil, palm kernel oil, and their fractions is different, each type of oil needs to be evaluated separately with regards to their CVD effects and food preparation applications. However, the effects of the fractionation method and the fractional palm oil produced on health are controversial in the literature. In this review, the use of palm oil produced via the fractional crystallization method in the food industry and its potential CVD effects were evaluated.

Keywords:

• Palm oil
• palm olein
• fractionation
• food industry
• cardiovascular disease
• health

Acknowledgements

None.

Disclosure statement

The authors declare no conflict of interest.

Funding

None.

Author contributions

BY; drafting the work or revising it critically for important intellectual content, final approval of the version to be published. DA; design and drafting the work and revising it critically for important intellectual content, final approval of the version to be published.