Source: Council for Biotechnology Information

Biotechnology helps create long-lasting soybean oil that's better for your heart.

Cakes, cookies, crackers and other processed foods could become a whole lot healthier once a new biotech soybean now in development reaches the market.

A University of Nebraska–Lincoln (UNL) researcher has successfully developed a soybean with healthier oil that he believes could help improve consumer health.

"This is something consumers could sink their teeth into," said Tom Clemente, an associate professor at the UNL Plant Science Institute.

The enhanced soybeans have been improved so they contain more of the "good" monounsaturated fats and less polyunsaturated fats and "bad" saturated fats.

While polyunsaturated fats aren't by themselves bad for your health, food processors often hydrogenate these oils to make them more stable so food stays fresh and crisper longer. And that produces harmful trans fats, which is why the U.S. Food and Drug Administration has required that trans fats in foods be labeled by Jan. 1, 2006. (1) Canada also is requiring trans fats to be labeled. (2)

Reducing the levels of harmful trans fats in hydrogenated soybean oil with biotechnology could have a significant effect on human health because soybean oil represents more than 80 percent of all the edible oil consumed in the United States, according to the American Soybean Association. (3)

Several studies have shown that eating trans fat and saturated fat raises levels of "bad" low-density lipoprotein (LDL) cholesterol in the body, which increases the risk of coronary heart disease. Nearly 13 million Americans suffer from coronary heart disease, causing more than 500,000 deaths each year, according to the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. (4)

"If this soybean product could get on the market, it would be the first biotech product the consumer could see as a benefit," Clemente told the Omaha World-Herald. (5)

By silencing two soybean genes, Clemente and his team have increased the levels of oleic acids, which produce monounsaturated fats — one of the "good fats" — and they've decreased the palmitic acids, which produce saturated fats — one of the "bad fats."

Clemente said his job was simplified by decades of work that came before his. "For probably 25 years conventional breeders have attempted to get a high oleic soybean," Clemente says. But since the genes responsible for producing oleic acid in a soybean are all recessive, or hidden, they couldn't do it consistently, he says. "We went in and actually silenced specific genes," he said. "I knew beforehand which genes needed to be modulated."

Health benefits

American Dietetic Association spokesperson Wahida Karmally says the improved soybean could help improve human health.

"If you prepare a food with the regular soybean oil, like a cracker or cookie, and you keep it on the shelf, it's not going to last that long — it will get that fishy odor, which means it's rancid," says Karmally, who is also director of nutrition at the Center for Clinical Research at Columbia University's Irving Center.

She explained that regular soybean oil contains high levels of linoleic acid, a polyunsaturated fat, which is unstable.

To use regular soybean oil in processed foods, Karmelly says, commercial processors will make those unstable molecules more stable by adding partially hydrogenated vegetable oils. This step not only improves the foods' shelf life, it improves the consistency of many products.

"Partially hydrogenated oil is what makes the cracker crispier," Karmally says. Hydrogenation is also used to transform liquid vegetable oil into stick margarine.

Unfortunately, it's the partially hydrogenated vegetable oil that introduces trans fat into foods. So a new soybean whose oil doesn't require hydrogenation is a healthier bean.

Clemente says his improved bean contains between 75 percent and 80 percent of healthful monounsaturated oleic acids, making the oil stable enough so it does not require hydrogenation. In contrast, regular soybeans contain between 15 and 20 percent oleic acid. (6)

 Clemente's work, which was funded by the Nebraska Soybean Board's "Better Bean Initiative," is just one example among many research projects that are designed to improve human health with plant biotechnology. There are many biotech products in the pipeline — including a cancer-fighting tomato and corn and canola oils with up to 10 times the levels of healthful Vitamin E — that show promise. 

While plant biotechnology may be the best way to reduce trans fats produced from soybean oil, conventional breeding has been used to increase the levels of healthful oleic acid in canola. And some food companies have recently begun using these oils in their food processing to avoid trans fats, which contribute just 2 to 3 percent of the typical American diet's total calories. (By contrast, saturated fats make up about 12 percent of total calories.) (7) 

Industrial benefits

Clemente says it's also interesting to note that a high oleic soybean has some non-nutritive benefits. Its stability and "lubricity" make it a very good raw material for making biodiesel fuel, says Clemente.

Now that the bean's been grown, he says, the patenting, licensing and testing processes shouldn't take more than a few years. Clemente expects his better bean will be available commercially by the end of the decade.

And Clemente, for one, hopes that his bean will help dispel doubts about the usefulness of agricultural biotechnology.

"This is something consumers can easily see the benefits of," he says.

For more information:

Trans Fats on Food Labels: A Big Help for Consumers in Watching Their Cholesterol and Staying Healthy, Says American Dietetic Association — American Dietetic Association

HHS to Require Food Labels to Include Trans Fat Contents — Food and Drug Administration

FDA Acts to Provide Better Information to Consumers on Trans Fats — Food and Drug Administration

Food Labeling: Trans Fatty Acids in Nutrition Labeling, Nutrient — Food and Drug Administration

Content Claims, and Health Claims Final Rule — Food and Drug Administration

Questions and Answers on Proposed Trans Fat Proposed Rule — Food and Drug Administration 

Research in the Area of High Oleic Oils — National Research Council Canada

UNL Altering Soybeans to Create Healthy Food — Omaha World-Herald

Super-charged Soybeans Could Be Biofactories — Research Nebraska

ASA Responds to FDA Call for Trans Fat Labeling — American Soybean Association

Products in the Pipeline — Council for Biotechnology Information

Biotech and Better Health — Council for Biotechnology Information

Biotechnology Could Help Provide Healthier Diets — Council for Biotechnology Information

(1) - “HHS to Require Food Labels to Include Trans Fat Contents," U.S. Department of Health and Human Services press release, July 9, 2003, <http://www.hhs.gov/news/press/2003pres/20030709.html>

(2) - "Health Canada Announces New Mandatory Nutrition Labelling to Help Canadians Make Informed Choices for Healthy Eating," Health Canada news release, Jan. 2, 2003, <http://www.hc-sc.gc.ca/english/media/releases/2003/2003_01.htm>

(3) - "ASA Responds to FDA Call for Trans Fat Labeling," American Soybean Association press release, July 9, 2003, <http://www.soygrowers.com/newsroom/releases/2003%20releases/r070903.htm>

(4) - "HHS to Require Food Labels to Include Trans Fat Contents," U.S. Department of Health and Human Services press release, July 9, 2003, <http://www.hhs.gov/news/press/2003pres/20030709.html>

(5) - "UNL Altering Soybeans to Create Healthy Foods," Omaha World-Herald, July 16, 2003, <http://www.omaha.com/index.php?u_np=0&u_pg=46&u_sid=798014>

(6) - "Super-charged Soybeans Could Be Biofactories," Research Nebraska, University of Nebraska-Lincoln Agricultural Research Division, September 2001, <http://ard.unl.edu/rn/0901/soybean.html>

(7) - "ASA Responds to FDA Call for Trans Fat Labeling," American Soybean Association press release, July 9, 2003, <http://www.soygrowers.com/newsroom/releases/2003%20releases/r070903.htm

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