Ames, Iowa
November 12, 2003
MAJOR
FOOD
COMPANIES WILL TEST NEW OIL IN PRODUCTS THIS YEAR
New soybean varieties developed at
Iowa State
University
hold promise for food manufacturers scrambling to remove
unhealthy trans fats from their products.
The new soybeans produce oil that doesn't need to be
hydrogenated.
The oil passed critical laboratory tests for frying and flavor
stability last year, and is being made available this month to
many major food companies for evaluation in various products.
The Food and Drug Administration has given food manufacturers
until 2006 to include trans fat information on package labels.
Trans fats may raise blood cholesterol levels and contribute to
heart disease. Most trans fats in the nation's food supply are
created in the hydrogenation process, which is used to extend
shelf life and stabilize flavor in countless baked, fried and
processed foods, including chips, snack crackers, cookies,
candies and salad dressings.
Manufacturers hydrogenate soybean oil to reduce its content of
unsaturated fatty acids, particularly linolenic acid, the
primary culprit responsible for causing food to become stale or
rancid. Soybeans typically produce oil with seven percent
linolenic acid. Iowa State's new soybean oil has only one
percent linolenic acid.
The new soybean was developed through conventional breeding
practices by soybean breeder Walter Fehr, a Charles F. Curtiss
Distinguished Professor in Agriculture, and Earl Hammond,
emeritus University Professor of food science and human
nutrition. They started working on the project in the late
1960s. By the early 1990s, they had isolated the three soybean
genes that control the one percent linolenic acid trait.
The Iowa State University Research Foundation holds the patent
for the one percent linolenic acid soybean.
This year, the one percent linolenic soybeans were planted and
harvested in Michigan by Zeeland Farm Services Inc., Zeeland,
Mich. In early November, 210,000 pounds of crude oil were
extracted from the harvested soybeans. Loders Croklaan, a
producer of specialty and nutritional oils and fats in Joliet,
Ill., will refine about 70,000 pounds of the oil for
distribution to oil suppliers and food companies that have
purchased it for testing. The remaining crude oil will be kept
in Michigan until more refined oil is needed.
Interest in the new oil is growing, Fehr said. A major supplier
of frying oil this week requested oil for testing. In addition,
Fehr will travel to Japan next week to discuss the new oil with
representatives of their vegetable oil industry.
To cut trans fats in their products by 2006, the food industry
could switch from soybean oil to alternative oils that don't
contain linolenic acid. However, the supply of alternative oil
is limited, Fehr said.
"There aren't enough acres of alternative vegetable oil crops,
like canola or sunflower, to meet the industry's oil needs,"
Fehr said.
More than 73 million acres of soybeans are grown in the United
States. Soybeans supply 81 percent of the
U.S. food industry's needs for edible oils and fats.
Fehr is working with
Iowa
grower groups, including the Innovative Growers and the Iowa
Quality Agriculture Guild, that will plant the one percent
linolenic acid soybean next spring.
"This is a special opportunity for growers who already are
getting a premium for their non-GMO soybeans. The current
premium applies only to the value of the non-GMO protein
obtained from the soybeans. The one percent linolenic acid
soybeans will make it possible to get an additional premium for
the oil," Fehr said.
"Growers will plant about 40,000 acres of the one percent
linolenic acid varieties in 2004 to obtain the seed needed for
large-scale oil production in 2005," Fehr said. "We'll need one
million acres in 2005 to meet the demand that the food industry
estimates it will have for this oil." |