WINNIPEG — A move by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration to ban artificial trans fats in processed foods within three years will create opportunities for Canada’s canola sector, especially high oleic varieties such as Nexera.
Partially hydrogenated oils (PHOs), which are the primary source of artificial trans fat in processed foods, are not “generally recognized as safe”, or GRAS, for use in human foods, said the FDA when making the announcement June 16.
“This action is expected to reduce coronary heart disease and prevent thousands of fatal heart attacks every year,” said FDA acting commissioner Dr. Stephen Ostroff in a news release.
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In addition to the health benefits, the U.S. rules will also create increased demand for those products that can replace PHOs.
“It’s good news for canola,” said Dave Dzisiak, commercial director of grains and oils with Dow AgroScience in Calgary.
Labelling requirements implemented by the FDA in 2006 have already served to reduce the amount of trans fats used in the U.S. and raise the usage of high oleic Canadian canola oil, but Dzisiak said there were still an estimated two billion pounds of PHOs being used in the country. He said that would represent roughly 2.5 million acres of canola.
The taste, texture and shelf-life attributes of PHOs can’t be replaced by regular canola oil, but the high oleic varieties that command a premium in the market provide a good alternative, he said.
“Any of that market share we can get is a net gain for total canola,” said Dzisiak, noting that the U.S. already represents the largest market for Canadian canola oil. He said that canola oil usage was second only to soy oil in the U.S. food industry, with demand having risen significantly over the past five years due to trans fat concerns and regulations.
While there is a three year deadline for implementation of the FDA ban and food processors do have the option to petition for specific approvals, the reduction of PHOs will likely happen earlier because most companies will want to get trans fats out of their ingredient lists as soon as possible for public relations reasons, said Dzisiak.
There are some applications that have proven difficult for removing artificial trans fat, and there are few adequate substitutions for PHOs. Both corn and sunflower oil are possibilities, but he said the room for expansion was minimal on those fronts.
Canola, meanwhile, “is a very scalable crop,” he said.
Currently, about 10to 15 percent of Canada’s canola crop is seeded to high oleic varieties, which means there is plenty of room for adjustment in acres. The Canola Council of Canada has targets in place that would see high oleic specialty canola account for 33 percent of seeded acres by 2025.
“The canola industry is well positioned to provide the appropriate products to take the place (of PHOs),” said Chaunda Durance-Tod, CanolaInfo Manager with the Canola Council of Canada.
“We’ve been aware that this (FDA announcement) has been in the works, and the industry has been ramping up,” she added, noting that “there are not a lot of other competitors already in the market.”
The soybean industry wants to get approval for high oleic soybeans, which would compete directly with high oleic canola oil, said Dzisiak. However, that is still hung up in regulatory approvals in major overseas markets, which provides canola with the opportunity to gain market share and become established as the commercial standard.
“Once you’re the incumbent, you’re more difficult to unseat,” said Dzisiak, “so we have a window of opportunity to capture as much of that share as we can.”
In Canada, current Health Canada regulations limit trans fat content to two percent in vegetable oil and margarine and five percent for all other foods. Labeling rules are also in place.
