SASKATOON – Canadian producers of solin, low-linolenic flax, have applied for an important mark of approval from the U.S. Food and Drug Administration.
The Flax Council of Canada, United Grain Growers and Saskatchewan Wheat Pool are working together to get Generally Regarded as Safe status for the vegetable oil.
Although regular flax seed is often used in small quantities in baked goods, it is mainly used to make industrial linseed oil. Solin is used as a vegetable oil similar to that from sunflowers.
“GRAS status is sort of a worldwide standard of quality. If you have GRAS status from the U.S., generally most other countries fall into line,” said Bob Tyler, head of product research for Sask Pool in Saskatoon.
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Interested parties in the United States have until June 10 to comment on the application. Tyler hopes the process will be complete in about a year, much quicker than the five years it took to get the status for canola.
Safety shouldn’t be an issue, but political and commercial concerns might be raised, he said.
“The sunflower industry might not be thrilled to see this on the market,” because the two oils will compete directly, he said.
And North Dakota growers of traditional flax are concerned about the potential problem of mixing solin with regular flax in the elevator system, he added. In Canada, this issue is being resolved by requiring all solin varieties to have yellow-coated seed and traditional flax to have brown seed.
UGG’s Linola is the only solin grown commercially in Canada, but Sask Pool varieties might be ready by the end of the decade.
In 1995, about 2.16 million acres were seeded to the blue-flowered oilseed. Linola made up a little more than 10 percent of the crop.
John Dean, UGG manager of market development in Winnipeg, wouldn’t say how much he expects this year but noted oilseed acres are down generally.
Dean said he is pleased with solin’s acceptance among farmers and processors.
In 1994, Thomas J. Lipton Ltd. struck a deal with UGG to use Linola oil in Becel margarine.
“We were very happy with it, and we used it until about December of last year,” said Paul Schur, Lipton product development manager in Bramalea, Ont.
“It was a commercial (price) issue, not a quality problem,” that caused Becel to go back to sunflower oil, he said.
Dean said UGG got a better price from European crushers.
“We are not positioning Linola as a discount product,” he said.
UGG and Lipton are trying to resolve their differences.
Chris Hales, Flax Growers of Western Canada president, grew a quarter section of solin in 1995 and he hopes to double that this year.
“It yielded a little better than the flax we normally grow here and the price was a little stronger. Last year it was 25-50 cents a bushel better a lot of the time,” Hales said.
The Regina-area farmer noted solin took longer to mature than his traditional flax.
However, UGG has a new Linola variety that matures a couple of days earlier and is higher yielding, which should be ready for commercial production next year, Dean said.
