Palm Oil (Elaeis guineensis): A Journey through Sustainability, Processing, and Utilization.

Palm oil, derived from Elaeis guineensis, is a critical component of the global edible oil and industrial fat market. This review provides a comprehensive overview of the sustainability of the palm oil chain, focusing on industrial applications, environmental implications, and economic sustainability. The processing of palm oil, from fruit pulp to refined oil, is detailed, highlighting the importance of refining in maintaining quality and extending application ranges. While palm oil offers health benefits because of its rich fatty acid composition and antioxidant properties, its production poses significant environmental challenges. This review underscores ongoing efforts to balance technological and culinary demands with environmental stewardship and sustainable economic growth. Emerging trends, including interspecific hybrids such as E. guineensis and E. oleifera, are discussed for their potential to increase sustainability and productivity.

Unconventional sourced proteins in 3D and 4D food printing: Is it the future of food processing?

Following consumer trends and market needs, the food industry has expanded the use of unconventional sources to obtain proteins. In parallel, 3D and 4D food printing have emerged with the potential to enhance food processing. While 3D and 4D printing technologies show promising prospects for improving the performance and applicability of unconventional sourced proteins (USP) in food, this combination remains relatively unexplored. This review aims to provide an overview of the application of USP in 3D and 4D printing, focusing on their primary sources, composition, rheological, and technical-functional properties. The drawbacks, challenges, potentialities, and prospects of these technologies in food processing are also examined. This review underscores the current necessity for greater regulation of food products processed by 3D and 4D printing. The data presented here indicate that 3D and 4D printing represent viable, sustainable, and innovative alternatives for the food industry, emphasizing the potential for further exploration of 4D printing in food processing. Additional studies are warranted to explore their application with unconventional proteins.

Potential Challenges of the Extraction of Carotenoids and Fatty Acids from Pequi (Caryocar brasiliense) Oil.

Pequi is a natural source of bioactive compounds with wide versatility for fresh or processed fruit consumption, but it is still little explored economically. Functional foods are the subject of diverse scientific research since, in addition to being nourishing, they contain bioactive compounds capable of promoting several benefits to the human body. Pequi is a fruit species native to the Brazilian Cerrado, which is rich in oil and has components with a high nutritional value, such as unsaturated fatty acids (omega-3, omega-6, EPA, and DHA), antioxidants (carotenoids and phenolic compounds), and vitamins. Therefore, the present narrative review aims to compile and critically evaluate the methods used to extract oil from the pulp and almonds of pequi and describes the carotenoid separation from the oil because carotenoids are natural pigments of great interest in the pharmaceutical and food industries. It is emphasized that the main challenges linked to bioactive compound extraction are their susceptibility to degradation in the processing and storage stages of pequi and its derived products.