High stability canola oil is in a fight with low-linolenic soybean oil and Canadian farmers need canola to win, says marketer Dave Dzisiak of Dow AgroSciences.
“If canola is not successful in really ramping up supply of this stuff, it could go back to being a much smaller crop than it has historically been,” said Dzisiak, who oversees Natreon sales in the United States. Natreon oils are produced from the Nexera line of canola varieties.
“Hydrogenated oils are going to be going away. The food industry needs a new oil. If they don’t adopt canola, they don’t need canola.
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“If hydrogenation goes away, they’ll pick the next best solution. They can produce a lot of soybeans in the U.S.”
High stability canola oil, such as Dow’s Natreon or Cargill’s specialty canola oils, can be used for deep frying much longer than regular canola and soybean oils.
Partially hydrogenated soybean oil can be used for deep frying for longer than regular canola and soybean oil, but high stability canola oil has an even longer fry life.
High stability canola oils are grown in identity-preserved programs and specially crushed and processed, which makes them more expensive than regular canola oil.
But low-linolenic soybean oil, also produced from varieties produced in identity-preserved programs, can also cut trans fats, and is canola’s main competitor. It’s a good competitor to have, because it’s weaker than canola.
“The main thing that we have to rely on is that we really do have a better product,” said Dzisiak. That is because the special canola has the lowest saturated fat levels and lasts longest in commercial deep frying.
“It’s not a cheaper product today,” said Dzisiak about low-linolenic soybean oil.
“It’s certainly not cheaper if you take out the fry life. Low-lin soybeans do not have the stability and the long fry life that our canola product would have.”
Dzisiak said it may be hard for low-linolenic soybean oil to reduce its cost, because soybean crushing plants are large and designed for bulk production. It is more expensive for these huge plants to do small, special runs of soybean oil than it is for the smaller sized canola crushers.
Dow recently announced that its Natreon production this coming year, using both canola and sunflower oil, will increase by 35 percent and should double in 2007.
Trans fats are evaporating from grocery items because Canadian and
U.S. regulations are listing trans fat content in food products. Trans fats have been linked to heart disease and other health problems.
But labelling laws don’t apply to restaurants, so their use of canola in general and high stability canola in particular hasn’t been as quick.
Dzisiak said an anti-trans fat mood is spreading there too.
“The food industry is beginning to take note. … We’re getting more and more interest.”
Dzisiak wouldn’t say which companies are buying high stability canola, but said suppliers and buyers are on the verge of making it a much bigger market.
“We’re kind of at that phase where people say ‘if you’ve got it, we’ll buy it,’ and we say, ‘if you order it, we’ll make it.’ “
Right now about eight billion pounds of partially hydrogenated vegetable oils are consumed in the U.S. per year, so the potential market for high stability canolas is big, said Dzisiak.
“We’ve got to make sure that we’re positioned to be able to supply it and take advantage of it.”
By 2007, Dow hopes to be able to produce about 1.2 billion lb. of its
Natreon canola and sunflower oils, he said.
