Trans fat is going to be the next big food issue, making a big impact on the vegetable oil market.
The first wave of news stories about trans fats hit Canadian newscasts and newspapers last week.
The Globe and Mail’s front page headline on Oct. 29 was the eye grabbing “Hidden danger lurks in children’s snacks,” part of a week long series of stories that were developed in conjunction with CTV News.
Trans fatty acids are found naturally in small amounts in meat and dairy products, but have come under new scrutiny with the increased consumption of snacks like crackers and cookies and fast foods like french fries made with hydrogenated or partially hydrogenated vegetable oil.
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Hydrogenation converts some unsaturated fatty acids into trans fatty acids.
Liquid vegetable oil is usually not hydrogenated, but margarine and shortening are hydrogenated to make them solid, give them more stability for frying and longer shelf life.
Medical researchers believe trans fats increase low-density lipoprotein, the “bad” cholesterol and lower high-density lipoprotein, the “good” cholesterol. This can increase the danger of heart disease.
Canada and the United States have decided that consumers should be made aware of trans fat content in various foods and so have mandated that it be included on food labels. Large companies have to carry the labels by 2006 and small companies by 2008.
The labels and increased media coverage will cause most of us to want to avoid trans fats. Dieticians recommend we avoid processed snacks and instead bite into fruits and vegetables.
But they’ve been recommending that for a long time and most of us can’t break our snack and fast food habits. So there will be a big push for lowering or eliminating trans fats in these foods.
The good news is that plant breeders have already provided a solution. High oleic, low linoleic acid canola varieties, such as those from Cargill and Dow AgroSciences, provide heat stability and long shelf life without hydrogenation.
Industry observers say a third of Canada’s canola area could be seeded to these varieties within the next five years.
Breeders of soybeans and other oilseeds are also chasing this trait, but it appears canola has the lead.
This could help canola oil leap out of its market niche of bottled salad oil into the huge food service and industrial food frying sector.
