Figure 1.

Triacylglycerol molecule structure before and after interesterification. An example of a triacylglycerol molecule (POL) that occurs in oils and fats is depicted in which palmitic (P), oleic (O) and linoleic (L) fatty acids occupy the Sn1, 2 and 3 positions respectively. Following interesterification (IE) by either chemical or enzymatic methods, these fatty acids are rearranged and take new forms, which would include LPO (linoleic-palmitic-oleic), OLP (oleic-linoleic-palmitic) and PLO (palmitic-linoleic-oleic) among the various permutations that are possible. Since natural oils and fats are made up of a variety of triacylglycerol molecules, interesterification will result in a large number of new triacylglycerol molecules.