Raymond F. Baker Center for Plant Breeding

Low-Linolenic Soybeans: A Better Choice for Producers and Consumers

Dr. Walter Fehr, a soybean breeder with the Raymond F. Baker Center for Plant Breeding, has developed a soybean with the potential to change the way Americans eat. Choosing oil extracted from soybean varieties developed by him will allow consumers to make healthier eating choices and equip food manufacturers with a commodity that will both remain stable and produce healthier food for the public.

A Public Health Concern

Beginning in 2006, a new law will require that food labels disclose the amount of trans-fat in food products. Trans-fats are the solid fats produced when liquid vegetable oil is heated in the presence of metal catalysts and hydrogen, a process called partial hydrogenation. Manufactures use this process to prolong the shelf-life and frying-life of vegetable oils. Unfortunately, prolonging the life of vegetable oil can shorten the life of people. Health experts predict that replacing partially hydrogenated fats with un-hydrogenated fats would prevent about 30,000 premature deaths each year. (Harvard School of Public Health, 1999)

A Healthy Alternative

Dr. Fehr, in collaboration with Food Scientist Dr. Earl Hammond of Iowa State University, began working to develop a healthy alternative to the conventionally processed oils. Since linolenic acid is the component in soybean oil that causes it to taste stale or become rancid, breeding soybeans with lower levels of this component, would reduce these undesirable side effects. Through conventional breeding methods, Dr. Fehr was able to produce soybean lines that exhibited 1% linolenic acid levels, a significant decrease from the common 7% levels in conventional soybeans.

Going to Market

By 2004, farmers had planted about 30,000 acres of 1% linolenic soybean varieties. It has been projected that more than 1 million acres of the low-linolenic varieties will be needed to meet the anticipated demand for oil. Asoya, an Iowa based corporation that manufactures oil from the low-linolenic soybeans, plans to produce 20 million tons of oil from low-linolenic soybeans in 2005.

For additional information visit the 1% Linolenic Soybean Oil Web site.