Monsanto Soybean Could Add Healthy Oil To Food

www.agrinews-pubs.com
Jeannie Otto
2010-01-26

ST. LOUIS — When is a granola bar more than a granola bar?

When it contains a heart-healthy Omega-3 fatty acid that can’t be detected, said Rick Wilkes, director of food applications for Monsanto.

In the midst of the massive breeding and biotechnology work being done by Monsanto provide food, feed, fuel and fiber for a growing world population, Wilkes and his team have an equally important job — make sure that products which may eventually wind up in consumers’ grocery carts deserve to be there.

The oil from the recently-announced SDA omega-3 soybeans is the first consumer-oriented project to move to Phase 4 in the Monsanto pipeline.

“We’ve been able to put it in a lot of food products,” Wilkes said.

With the GRAS — generally recognized as safe — status received from the Food and Drug Administration, Monsanto now is working with food companies to see what products can best incorporate the new SDA oil.

“We now have food processors who are evaluating SDA in their food systems,” Wilkes said. “We are now in the phase where we are handing out the oil and talking to food companies. Right now, our focus is working with food companies to provide the right level of omega-3 based on what the science says out there.”

Omega-3 fatty acid is a heart-healthy compound that can reduce the risk of heart disease. Currently, the compound is found in fatty fish and fish oil.

However, getting Americans to eat the recommended two servings of fatty fish a week can be difficult. Availability of fatty fish like mackerel, herring, sardines and salmon, the fact that many people don’t like eating any fish, issues with preparation and cooking and a fear of contamination by mercury and other compounds can make it difficult to incorporate the omega-3 oils into diets.

Fish oil capsules are an option, but some are put off by taste or smell of the oil. Incorporating fish oil into everyday food products also has met challenges.

“Fish oil has a lot of double bonds. It compromises shelf life. You get something like a granola bar that should last a year, and you may only get a five-month shelf life when you add fish oil,” Wilkes noted.

The challenge for Wilkes and for the breeding and biotech teams was to find a sustainable alternative that worked for farmers, food companies and consumers.

“When you talk to consumers, you ask what kind of food would you like to see this in?” he said. “They said foods that I eat daily, that I enjoy. Put it in things I like.”

Some examples of products that could be candidates for the new heart-healthy oil are granola bars, margarine, yogurt, cereal, bread and pastries — items that already incorporate some amount of oil in their preparation.

The SDA in the soybean oil is an intermediate in the process of the body creating omega-3 eicosapaentaenoic acid in red blood cells. In the body, SDA raises the levels of EPA, the heart-healthy compound and the compound that reduces risk of heart disease.

“What we’ve done is put the SDA in the soybean,” Wilkes said.

For processors who will handle the oil, the new SDA oil handles like any other soybean oil. Many fish oils have to be stored frozen, which can be a challenge for processors in storing and preparation. Fish oils also can present stability issues for processors.

The benefits of the SDA soybean oil are that processors can handle, store and use the oil like any soybean oil. The new oil primarily will be used as an ingredient, not as a frying-type oil.

“It processes like soybean oil, it is handled by the food processor like soybean oil,” Wilkes said. “The benefits to the processor are that it’s bland in flavor and it acts like a soybean oil in how you process food.”

The ultimate judge of how well the oil from the SDA soybean, the first consumer-oriented product from Monsanto, does is the person pushing the cart down the aisle of the local supermarket.

“We’ve been able to put it in a lot of food products. We put it into a granola bar, and it tastes like a typical fruit and nut granola bar. I made some granola bars with fish oil, and they went off flavor much earlier,” Wilkes said.

While the health benefits of omega-3 are established, for Wilkes and the food companies he’s working with, moving the new source of omega-3, the SDA soybean, into the actual consumer food chain is the next step.

“The science is out there that shows the health benefit from omega-3. Our job is coming up with an ingredient that food companies can now use. They don’t want the fishy taste, they want the food. We need to come out with good-tasting products with this omega-3 that you can store in the home and use the way you do today,” he said.

Roy Fuchs, Monsanto vice president of global oilseed technology, said that the SDA omega-3 soybean is expected to be commercialized within the next two to three years.




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