future
When the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) required trans fat content to be listed on nutrition labels in January 2006, the soybean industry began to find ways to lower unhealthy trans fat in soybean oil.
A number of desired oil traits are currently in the pipeline - some further away than others. The first trait-enhancement was a low-linolenic variety, which is now available to food manufacturers and restaurants. Future traits expected to emerge include:
- increased oleic
- low-saturate
- low-phytate
- Omega-3
- mid-oleic/low-saturate
- higher metabolizable energy
- high-oleic
- amino acid
Seed breeders are constantly working on additional traits and/or combinations of traits. This Industry Pipeline illustrates an exciting future for soybeans.
