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Soybean farmer sees boost with soy oil claim

A soybean grower and director on the United Soybean Board says the newly approved health claim for soy oil will help consumers, food makers and U.S. growers, “Certainly, domestically it’s going to be great. Anything that helps our competitiveness is great for us, especially right now. We’re suffering from low prices so anything we can do on the farm to help us compete more, not just here in the U.S., but overseas is important,” says Wisconsin farmer Nancy Kavazanjian. She tells Brownfield the claim, which was approved this week by the FDA, can be used by U.S. food manufacturers on labels of foods containing soy oil, “Finally, it’ll be recognized that soy oil is a great way to replace saturated fats with a polyunsaturated that’s heart healthy.” The health claim is similar to those associated with canola and olive oil.

Kavazanjian says the Soybean Checkoff will use the claim to position soy oil in international markets looking for healthy alternatives, especially Asia, where a great deal of oil is used for cooking. “Vegetable” oils made in the U.S. contain mostly soy oil.

AUDIO:  Interview with Nancy Kavazanjian