Palm oil is now the world’s largest vegetable oil by volume. With proven nutritional benefits in addition to the presence of nutraceutical components, such as tocotrienols and carotenoids, palm oil is consumed in over 150 countries worldwide. It plays a pivotal role in the socioeconomic development of Asian, Latin American, and African regions. In 2010, global production of oils and fats stood at 172.1 million tonnes. Palm oil combined with palm kernel oil was the largest contributor to these, accounting for 51.6 million tonnes, or 30% of the total output. Of the 65 million tonnes of oils and fats entering global trade, palm oil and palm kernel oil accounted for close to 61% of the total volume, or 39.6 million tonnes, with Malaysia having 45% of the market share, dominating the international trade in palm oil. The success of the palm oil industry in Malaysia, Indonesia, and elsewhere has never been easy and has only gotten harder in recent years. Its success has often been made more difficult by mistrust and misconceptions about the oil, its composition, and its nutritional benefits. Thus, with this critical issue in mind, this book has been assembled with the hope of being an authoritative, comprehensive, and highly informative compilation of recent advances and issues in various important areas of palm oil industry—from the production, processing, and characterization to the utilization of palm oil and its components. The topics herein deal with both the production and processing of palm oil and kernels, and more importantly, the editors attempted to provide an international perspective to this area by drawing experts from around the world, especially Malaysia, Brazil, and Nigeria. Thus, this book has amassed diverse topics from these experts in specific areas from across the globe. This book begins with a chapter on the history of oil palm and subsequently three chapters related to oil palm breeding, oil palm genomics, tissue culture and genetic engineering of oil palm. The book also includes several topics related to postharvest activities, pests, and diseases of oil palm. Information on production of palm oil and palm kernel oil; physical, chemical, and polymorphic properties of palm oil and its components; as well as the measurement and maintenance of palm oil quality are included in the book, which may be of interest to researchers, scholars, technologists, and food manufacturers. To understand the importance of this plant-based oil, the variety of applications of palm and kernel oil, and their fractions in food, nutritional and oleochemical products are included. The potential use of palm oil as an alternative to trans fats in foods is also highlighted. There are also special chapters dedicated to the use of palm biomass in various woodbased products and as sources of bioenergy and biofuels. We have also included indepth accounts of three current issues on oil palm/palm oil that are garnering attention and becoming globally relevant, namely waste and environmental management, trade and traceability, together with other issues relating to sustainable development of the palm oil industry. All the chapters in this book are presented in a stand-alone manner without the need to make references to other chapters in the book, thus allowing each of the contributors to provide comprehensive reviews of their field of expertise.