Specialized oils healthy for humans and machinery

A specialty soybean developed as a heart-healthy answer to trans fat concerns shows promise in keeping non-human machinery pumping more smoothly, as well.

Compiled by staff

Published: Sep 9, 2012

A specialty soybean developed as a heart-healthy answer to trans fat concerns shows promise in keeping non-human machinery pumping more smoothly, as well.

Monsanto developed Vistive low-linoleic soybeans to counter loss of market share caused by labeling of and growing manufacturer aversion to trans fats in foods.

Contract growers have been seeing a roughly 50- to 60- cent-per-bushel premium for raising the “low-lin” beans, which are processed into cooking and frying oils.

Monsanto plans further biotech work to generate added “modifed oils” with specific end-user benefits, according to biochemist Roy Fuchs, the company’s global oilseeds technology lead.

Vistive beans boast a 5 percent lower linoleic acid content, reducing the need for hydrogenation, a chemical process that boosts trans fats in soy oil. That also improves oil stability: Fuchs reported its new Vistive Gold oil, produced from GMO beans, works “extremely well” as a biodegradable lubricant, opening the door to use in motor oils and greases.

“We recently completed our regulatory processes in the U.S. and Canada so we can start selling the oil (for food use) while obtaining global approvals,” he told FarmWeek. “The approvals we get in the U.S. cover industrial uses. Industries have different specifications for different oils, but those aren’t related to using biotechnology.

“The major oil companies are very excited about having a natural, biodegradable (lubrication) source. Imagine oil applications for the Navy, where you could offer something in water that’s biodegradable. That’s a really new opportunity for soybean growers to contribute in areas they could not even have imagined five or 10 years ago.”

Monsanto is canvassing growers of original non-GMO Vistive beans about the possibility of raising Vistive Gold beans. Vistive contracts to date have been issued in irrigated areas, and Fuchs anticipates adequate fall supplies of the specialty bean.

Monsanto, meanwhile, continues to develop biotech beans that generate Omega-3 oils similar to the heart-healthy compounds found in less stable fish oils ill-suited to many food uses. That would offer a smaller acreage potential for growers than Vistive, initially across more northern states.

“Where it’s necessary, we’ll be commercializing these products across the (soybean) maturity zones,” Fuchs indicated, however.

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