Weigh The Options For Soybean Oil

Whether your end-use customer is a master chef, a home baker or an engineer, he or she is looking for something specific from a plant-based oil. As a U.S. soybean farmer, you can be confident that the oil from your crop can meet their needs.

Oil customers have found many applications for soybean oil, from uses in the kitchen to lubrication for engines. It’s available in several forms, which expands the market for U.S.-grown soybeans. That means stronger demand for your supply.

Today, 61 percent of the edible vegetable oil consumed in the U.S. is soybean oil.

Cooks choose commodity soybean oil for a wide range of uses, from cooking oil to salad dressings and baking. The versatile oil has a neutral taste and works well with other ingredients, including fats and oils.

“High oleic soybean oil brings out more flavor and holds up longer in our fryers,” says Enrico Margaroli, who runs a food truck in Ohio called A Cut Above. “It’s a better oil that delivers a quality fried product.”

Interesterification Gives Bakers a Solid Option

A recent FDA ruling called for companies to phase out all partially hydrogenated oils, which contain trans fats. The soy checkoff was ready with alternatives.

For more than 10 years, the checkoff has been working with the industry on new ways to meet the demand for stable cooking and baking oil.

One way is through a process called interesterification, which produces a hard fat, similar to margarine, from commodity soybean oil that meets the needs of some baking customers.

”The interesterification process is similar to what your body does when it digests fats,” says John Jansen, senior VP of product management with Bunge.

Interesterified soybean oil is readily available for immediate customer use.

“This domestic oil has the familiarity of soybean oil,” says Richard Galloway of QUALISOY, “and it’s readily available at a low cost.”

High Oleic Meets Stability Needs

At seed-selection time, farmers in certain regions have the power to meet customer needs by choosing to grow high oleic soybeans, which provide a better option for end-use consumers.

The soy checkoff collaborated with seed companies to expand breeding programs for high oleic soybeans to meet customer demand. These advanced soybean varieties provide high-quality oil for frying and baking. Since the oil has a longer shelf life and is stable at higher temperatures than commodity soybean oil, it opens up a different market for soybeans.

“I see a lot of potential to gain back some market share that we’ve lost over the past few years,” says checkoff farmer-leader Kevin Wilson, a farmer who grows both commodity and high oleic soybeans in Walton, Indiana.

Grocery store products like Nestle’s Coffee-Mate already use high oleic soybean oil to meet their needs without adding trans fats.

“The soy industry estimates that 2 billion pounds of partially hydrogenated soybean oil are still used in food today,” says Jimmy Sneed, a soybean farmer from Hernando, Mississippi, and checkoff farmer-leader. “We’re excited to bring solutions like high oleic and interesterified soybean oil to the market and are ready to shift the discussion to innovation.”

Industrial Customers Find Soy Oil Benefits

On top of its many uses in food, U.S.-grown soybean oil is a top choice for industrial customers. One big customer is transportation fuel. Biodiesel helped increase soybean prices by 74 cents per bushel between 2006 and 2012, and production continues to grow as customers and regulations demand renewable fuels.