The paper presents basic physical and chemical properties of palm oil, its application in the food industry. The problem of the palm oil influence on human health is considered. Palm oil is currently the most common type of vegetable fat in the world, the use of which in the food industry is increasing every year. Production of palm oil from 2015 exceeded the production of soybean oil and rapeseed and took the first place among the production of vegetable oils, ahead of 2.5 times production, even sunflower oil .Today palm oil is included in almost all food products from confectionery to dairy products. It can be found in the recipes of chocolate, bars, yoghurts, sweet cheeses, margarine, hard and fermented cheese, ice cream, sauces, dumplings, and so on. Thus, Nestlé, the world’s largest food producer, buys 420,000 tons of palm oil per year. The palm oil is used due to its physical and chemical properties, which provide the ability to remain in solid and semi-solid state at room temperature, unlike most vegetable oils. These properties of palm oil allow manufacturers to apply it as a natural substitute for partially hydrogenated vegetable fats. At the same time, the World Health Organization has officially recommended to reduce the consumption of saturated fatty acids, while palm oil is compared by the level of danger to such food products as butter and cream, meat, eggs, chocolate and lard. The analysis of scientific and experimental and clinical studies showed that palm kernel (palm kernel) and red palm oil used in the food industry today are obtained from the pulp of the fetus. All vitamin A is found in fetal wood pulp and is processed separately from the fetal nucleus. Therefore, the cheapest varieties of ordinary palm oil do not contain vitamin A. This oil has a grayish-white, rather than a red hue, because all the vitamin A in the processing goes to the red palm oil. The obtained results of experimental researches prove the negative influence of palm oil on metabolic processes, the result of which is overweight and obesity. Thus, in recent decades there has been a progressive increase of the number of overweight and obesity cases both among adults (up to 35%) and among children and adolescents (up to 25%). And this growth is 10% from the previous for every 10 years. However, it is known that overweight and obesity are important factors in the development of cardiovascular diseases. It should be noted that for countries in Africa and Southeast Asia with high consumption of common palm oil, there is a problem of vitamin A deficiency. It is known that vitamin A deficiency causes night blindness, and acts as a risk factor for low disease, especially in preschool children and pregnant women. The urgency of conducting complex experimental studies of the influence of palm oil on different systems of the organism increases with each passing day. There is evidence of the effect of prolonged excessive use of palm oil on morphological changes in the primary lymphoid organ of thymus. Experimental studies show different effects of palm oil on reproductive function. Taking into account the ever-increasing consumption of palm oil in the world and Ukraine's integration into the world economy, there is a need for scientific and experimental research into the influence of palm oil on the morpho-functional state of the human body. The obtained results showed that prolonged use of palm oil led, first of all, to the violation of cardiovascular and immune systems, causing ambiguous changes in the reproductive system. The conclusion was made on the necessity of further study of the influence of palm oil on the organism, in particular, on the reproduction. We are planning an experimental study of the palm oil effects on reproductive function.
Keywords: palm oil, saturated fatty acids, cardiovascular diseases
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