Trans fatty acids have been the subject of newspaper headlines for years but as yet have garnered little ink on food packages.
That’s about to change.
As summer winds down, grocery stores will be stuffed with cookies, potato chips and crackers touting zero grams of trans fats per serving, just in time to meet the back-to-school craze for snack foods.
“The major wave of conversion is this fall,” said Willie Loh, market development manager for Cargill’s specialty canola oils.
His job is to convince food manufacturers to use Cargill’s high oleic oils in their new product formulations.
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High oleic canola varieties produce a stable oil that doesn’t need to be hydrogenated before being used in snack foods.
That results in products free of the much-vilified trans fatty acids.
Some snack food manufacturers like Frito Lay already have trans fat free products on the shelves. Others are ready to launch in the next few months.
“The amount of work that the companies have gone in and done has been frankly staggering,” said Loh.
In addition to reformulating products to incorporate new oils, manufacturers have had to buy oil tanks and piping equipment, reconfigure their production lines, test products for consumer acceptance and develop new packages.
The measures have been sparked by a North American weight epidemic. Health experts have identified trans fats as a major contributor to obesity and heart disease.
Consequently, Canada has announced it will require labels that list trans fatty acid content in processed and packaged foods beginning Jan. 1, 2005.
The U.S. Food and Drug Administration will require similar labels by 2006. Loh said mandatory labelling regulations have created a “huge opportunity” for the canola industry.
Every tonne of high oleic canola oil used by snack food manufacturers and restaurants represents a market expansion.
“We’re now taking the hydrogenated soybean market,” said Loh.
One factor limiting that growth potential is the lack of high oleic canola acreage. Specialty canolas make up five to six percent of the 2004 crop, according to the Canola Council of Canada.
Cargill and Dow are the major players in the high oleic game. Pioneer Hi-Bred Ltd., which has some lines in early stages of development, feels there are too many yield problems associated with high oleic canola.
“If it doesn’t put yield in the back of the combine for the farmer, then we just can’t justify bringing that forth,” said Rachel Faust, communication co-ordinator for Pioneer.
High-yielding varieties
Cargill production manager Gary Galbraith said that limitation will be addressed when it releases three new Roundup Ready hybrids in 2005. Experimental hybrids are yielding up to 125 percent of conventional check varieties.
Hybrid seed will be limited in 2005 but by the following year it should account for a “good portion” of Cargill’s high oleic line-up.
Gailbraith said Cargill expanded its high oleic production by 50 percent in 2004 and is preparing for significant growth again in 2005.
The company hasn’t set price premiums for this year’s crop, but last year it paid an average premium of about $40 per tonne.
