Manufacturers are moving quickly to take advantage of canola oil’s new qualified health claim in the United States.
The Food and Drug Administration-approved claim verifies what product manufacturers have been claiming independently for years.
“We’re ecstatic about it,” said Jim Ehlen of Madhouse Munchies, a New Hampshire potato chip manufacturer. “The centrepiece of our potato chip recipe is the use of canola oil.”
The health claim given to canola says it can reduce the risk of coronary heart disease if it replaces less healthy oils.
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Product sellers and manufacturers can put the claim on the packaging and promotion of foods containing canola oil, so long as those foods meet certain other nutritional standards.
It takes about three months to change product packaging to add the claim, said Paul Brisebois, vice-president of marketing and brand management for Canbra Foods, the maker of Canola Harvest margarine and other canola products. But he expects the canola industry and product manufacturers to act more quickly to promote the healthy qualities of the oil.
Once the claim becomes known to the American public, demand should increase.
“It’s going to mean an increase in sales, hopefully,” said Brisebois. When olive oil received a qualified health claim its sales surged and canola product manufacturers would like to emulate that experience.
“We anticipate we’ll see some positive momentum … particularly because our price point is significantly lower than olive oil and olive oil still had a 16 percent increase in sales,” said Brisebois.
Does that mean canola oil prices will climb closer to olive oil’s premium, away from its traditional link to soybean oil?
“That would be nice, and we’ll consider that, but right now we’re not considering taking the price up at all,” said Brisebois.
Ehlen is far ahead of the curve on this issue. His company has exclusively used canola oil for its kettle-cooked chips since 1996. At first that was a tough decision to justify, given canola’s price compared to soybean oil.
“I banged my head against the wall for several years with nobody listening,” said Ehlen with a chuckle. But for the past two years, food distributors, manufacturers and restaurateurs have been asking more about canola’s healthy attributes.
The challenge for his company is to maintain its edge now that other manufacturers are likely to pile on the canola bandwagon.
“Our small company can hopefully position ourselves as the pioneers,” said Ehlen.
“The train’s come in to the station. We’d better be on it.”
