Currently, a majority of vegetable oil is extracted from various oil-bearing materials by either hexane extraction or a process that combines pressing and hexane extraction. In terms of the safety and environmental issues, an expectation for developing an alternative process of hexane extraction gets bigger as time goes by. Full pressing and supercritical carbon dioxide extraction have already been applied for a small scale production. Enzymatic aqueous extraction is also investigated. But these alternative processes are not relevant for a large scale production of commodity oils, such as soybean, canola and so on. Further studies to increase oil yield and reduce operational cost are required.
On the other hand, enzymatic degumming becomes widespread elsewhere in the world. Enzymatic degumming is based on conversion of non-hydratable phospholipids to hydratable lyso-phospholipids which are easily removed from crude oil to the water phase by centrifugation. As enzymatic degummed oil can be refined by physical refining, this process is advantageous to low cost and environment-conscious operation in comparison with chemical refining.

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The investigation concerning processes where the environmental impact is decreased, energy conservation, and effective use for wastes becomes an important problem also in oil-and-fats industry, while the demand for the environmental protection is rising worldwide in recent years. This paper takes up the research on the above-mentioned subjects, such as effective use of refining process and soap stock which are the characteristic wastes in a refining process, paying attention to the refining process in an oil-and-fats manufacturing process.

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Recent concerns for trans fatty acid and environmental preservation, and the growth of palm oil production impress on the technological development of fat modification process. This review focuses on recent development of hydrogenation with reduced trans fatty acid, dry fractionation and enzymatic Interesterification.

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