SASKATOON – Olestra may not be a big deal for farmers either as producers or eaters, some industry analysts say.
Olestra is a new kind of fat that will taste like fat, feel like fat, chemically be fat, but will slide through the body like water, leaving no fat behind.
The American food and drug administration last week approved the Procter and Gamble product, which it has been developing for more than 20 years, for use in potato chips and other snack foods. Canadian approval of the substance may come within a year, said federal food evaluator Dennis Lein.
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Procter and Gamble spokesperson Wendy Jacques said there should be a strong demand for olestra.
“Based on the research we’ve done, there’s a lot of consumer interest in having fat-free snacks that don’t require a significant tradeoff on taste,” Jacques said. “Right now there aren’t too many options out there for consumers.”
But the prospect of a no-fat oil entering the market is raising questions about the future of canola, which sells itself as the healthiest of vegetable oils.
“Fat substitutes certainly are a potential threat, but how much the public picks up on fat substitutes is unknown, so the impact is unknown,” said Canola Council of Canada president Dale Adolphe.
Adolphe pointed out that olestra is made from vegetable oil, so it isn’t a competitor. Any oil made from plants is considered a vegetable oil. Jacques said olestra may even increase vegetable oil demand, because it takes more than one kilogram of vegetable oil to make one kilogram of olestra.
While canola’s high price makes it an unlikely candidate for use in olestra, canola oil is seldom used in regular snack foods now anyway for the same reason.
Another saving grace for vegetable oils is the uncertainty whether the product will lower consumer demands for regular fats, said University of Manitoba nutritionist Bruce McDonald, a researcher involved in olestra’s Canadian application.
“Research on aspartame, Nutrasweet (a low calorie sugar replacement) haven’t shown much benefit,” said McDonald. “We tend to consume these low-cal drinks (then) turn around and compensate for the (missed) calories. There’s somewhat the same evidence for olestra.”
If olestra doesn’t cut consumer demand for fat, it could even expand the role of vegetable oils by creating new markets, Adolphe said. “Maybe olestra will create a new market rather than hurt the vegetable oil market.”
