Plant oil body engineering: A roadmap from multiscale structures to next-generation food systems

Plant oil bodies (POB) are natural pre-emulsified lipid carriers in seeds. Their unique core-interface ternary structure makes them ideal, sustainable building blocks for next-generation intelligent foods. However, realizing their potential requires a systematic engineering approach to transform them into programmable functional units. This review constructs a comprehensive multiscale engineering framework for POBs. It details interdisciplinary strategies-integrating physical fields, interfacial engineering, and synthetic biology-to precisely tailor their properties, establishing a clear "molecular structure-interfacial properties-macroscopic function" relationship for rational design. Through such engineering, POBs can be functionally modulated for tailored lipid digestion, low-saturated-fat foods, intelligent bioactive delivery, and innovative plant-based products. While the technological potential is vast, successful translation depends on overcoming scale-up challenges and addressing techno-economic and regulatory hurdles. This work provides a critical roadmap for advancing POBs from foundational research to industrial application.