The flax industry has carved out a niche in the food sector by promoting the health benefits of its oil’s high omega 3 content, but competition may be looming.
Dow AgroSciences LLC and Martek Biosciences Corp. are developing a canola seed that produces an omega 3 fatty acid.
However, the flax industry isn’t trembling with fear.
“It hasn’t shaken up the flax initiative at all,” said Flax Council of Canada president Barry Hall.
“It would be of some concern if they were ready to commercialize this in the next year or two, but that’s not going to happen.”
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The news release announcing the joint venture said Dow and Martek “anticipate a multi-year effort” to produce the new healthy oil, which will be marketed to the food industry.
Hall estimated it could be 10 years before the omega 3 canola oil is on the market.
David Dzisiak, leader of Dow’s oilseed business, said the company doesn’t discuss timelines for competitive reasons, but added Hall’s estimate is off the mark.
“We’ve already been working on it, so we’ve had kind of a big running start. It won’t be 10 years, but it won’t be next year.”
He doesn’t see Dow’s new canola variety elbowing flax out of the health and nutrition arena. For one thing, the two crops produce different types of omega 3.
The one being introduced in canola through genetic modification is a long-chain fatty acid called docosahexaenoic acid (DHA) that will be derived from fermented algae. It is a replacement for the omega 3 found in fish oil and is important for proper brain and eye development, especially in infants.
Dzisiak said fish consumption would quadruple if people ate the recommended amount of DHA.
“Obviously that is not very sustainable. The fish stocks are being pretty severely depleted,” he said.
Flax contains a high level of alpha-linolenic acid (AHA), a naturally occurring short-chain omega 3 fatty acid that lowers the risk of heart disease, reduces the risk of developing cancer and can help treat immune disorders such as rheumatoid arthritis, psoriasis and lupus.
Other crops contain ALA but not nearly as much as flax. Oil produced by the crop has 57 percent ALA and some of the new lines exceed 70 percent. By contrast, standard canola oil contains 11 percent ALA, although that has been reduced in the mid- to high-oleic canola oils.
Hall said flax’s omega 3 content has been a major selling point for the crop in the industry’s growing nutrition segments, which comprise an estimated 20 percent of flax sales. The remainder goes to industrial customers.
Flax is used as a baking ingredient, put into cereal bars and fed to chickens to produce omega 3 enriched eggs.
Dzisiak said DHA and ALA offer consumers different health advantages so he doesn’t anticipate Dow’s canola will sabotage flax sales, noting flax offers a variety of other health benefits in addition to omega 3.
What the new canola will do is help keep the crop one step ahead of soybeans in terms of its healthy oil profile. Dzisiak said the soybean industry is already attempting to duplicate the characteristics of high oleic canola.
“We need to keep doing things to keep advancing the value of (canola) and keep it competitive. So this is important for canola in the long term.”
