Huiles et corps gras végétaux : ressources fonctionnelles et intérêt nutritionnel

The wide variety of oleaginous resources potentially provides to industrial users a wide range of fats and oils, and so, a large range of properties. But less than 10 vegetable fats and oils – such as palm and its fractions, soybean, rapeseed, sunflower, cotton, peanut and olive oils – represent more than 90 % of the world production. So, these few vegetable fats and oils will have to respond simultaneously to numerous expectations, depending on the user, such as providing optimized nutrients and offering the texture looked forward or resisting to an established cooking temperature. Innovation (use of new variety with modified compositions, existing “niche” oil or completely new resource) could be an option to solve a specific issue, even if economical or regulatory constraints may not favor such alternatives. After summarizing vegetable fats and oils composition and the properties of fatty acids, this paper presents not only optimized processes allowing extraction of compounds of interest, but also processes for the conversion and enlargement of oils and fats functionalities in order to answer to the different and specific expectations of industrial users and consumers.