Butter and Oil - NCI Visuals Online.jpg

What are fats and oils?[edit | edit source]

Fats and oils:

  • do not mix with water
  • will mix with other oils

Oils are distinguished from fats by the fact that they are normally liquid at room temperature. Fats are normally solid at room temperature.

Fats and especially oils are generally flammable and care must be taken to avoid accidentally igniting.

Sources[edit | edit source]

You can get oil out of many plant products, if you squeeze them hard enough.

Vegetable oils include:

Animal fats include:

Uses[edit | edit source]

Vegetable and animal fats and oils[edit | edit source]

Edible fats and oils, including animal fats and vegetable fats (vegetable oils), are an important component of the human diet. Lack of adequate food energy is a continuing problem in many areas of the developing world and in famines, resulting in malnutrition, disease, and deaths; while in the developed countries over-consumption of fats leads to obesity and serious health problems.

They can also be used for biofuel, through conversion to biodiesel or direct use as straight vegetable oil. This raises serious issues of food security, as ever-increasing demand for transport fuel, especially from richer people, competes with food crops (both using food crops for biofuel and replacing food crops with biofuel-oriented crops). This places the ability of the poor to feed themselves in danger.

A more recent use is the production of bioplastics.W[verification needed]

Fats are the carriers of several important vitamins, and are also an important source of food energy (calorie).

Petroleum[edit | edit source]

Inedible oils include petroleum products such as kerosene. These are a non-renewable resource.

These which are used:

The burning of petroleum products is a major contributor to climate change.

See also[edit | edit source]

External links[edit | edit source]

FA info icon.svg Angle down icon.svg Page data
Authors Chris Watkins, Eric Blazek
License CC-BY-SA-3.0
Language English (en)
Related 0 subpages, 1 pages link here
Aliases Oil, Fat, Fats, Oils
Impact 2,358 page views
Created April 27, 2006 by Eric Blazek
Modified April 10, 2023 by Irene Delgado
Cookies help us deliver our services. By using our services, you agree to our use of cookies.