Why would any food manufacturer choose to go with a high oleic oil over a traditional one?

This is a hot debate right now, especially for snack food manufacturers. There’s a number of reasons that a food manufacturer would opt to go with a high oleic oil over a traditional oil.

For simplicities sake, we’re going to discuss this in terms of High Oleic Non-GMO Canola Oil vs. regular Non-GMO Canola Oil so that the only variable is the oleic value. Of course, the same discussion applies to both non-GMO and GMO varieties of oil, as well as many different types of oils — sunflower oil, safflower oil, soybean oil, etc.

The smoke points of oils are important. These temperatures indicate at what temperature a particular type of oil will begin to smoke at, and they are key for allowing manufacturers to choose the right oils for their production process.

But depending on who you ask, you may get different smoke point temperatures from different suppliers, even when they are supplying the same type of oil.

If you walk down the oil aisle of any grocery store, you are bound to find a plethora of different coconut oils – it's one of the most popular oils in today's food market.

After being demonized in the 80s and 90s, scientists are now debunking the myth that it is unhealthy. Fans of coconut oil (especially in the snack food industry) are rejoicing this drastic shift in health and perception.

A common question that we get from food manufacturers who are choosing coconut oil as an ingredient is, which kind of coconut oil should we choose? There are multiple types, or grades, of coconut oil — just like olive oil. And it’s important to choose the right grade of coconut oil to meet both your product attribute needs and functionality. 

Coconut Oil is now considered one of the best super-foods by some of today’s healthiest nutritionists, scientists and chefs.

It’s loved because of it’s health benefits — lowering cholesterol, supporting aging and those who are affected by Alzheimers, helping folks lose weight and simply supporting healthy body functioning. (Source)

Prior to now, this oil had a bad rap for years.

Over the years we’ve showed a lot of information on how olive oil is made. We haven’t, however, showed much on how canola oil is made.

Given the popularity of this oil (it holds the #2 spot in terms of US oil production volume, and Non-GMO Canola Oil is now Centra Foods’ #1 item), I thought it would be good to answer all of your canola oil questions with a video that explains and demonstrates canola oil production.

The demand for coconuts has skyrocketed in the last few years. Coconut everything can be found in the natural food market. Coconut oil, coconut sugar, coconut water. Not to mention just plain old coconuts!

At the same time, coconut producers are having a hard time keeping up. Supply on coconuts has also gone down slowly over time, which as a matter of simple economics, has driven prices up. If you are using coconut oil in your production — or even thinking about using it — here’s what you need to know.

If you fry food in a restaurant or if you produce a retail product by using frying, this article is for you. Today we will review the three most popular oils in today’s natural foods market that are used specifically for frying.

Healthy consumer trends are driving each of these oil choices, because they are looking for ingredients that are healthier and cleaner options than the industry standard conventional commodity oils.

If you want to keep an eye on oil industry trends, this is it!

The Centra Foods sales team recently attended the National College & University Foodservice conference for the Pacific and Continental regions. On the first morning of the conference, I presented at one of the breakout sessions.

I talked about Leadership Transitioning — how to most efficiently and smoothly step into a new role and begin to make changes that positively affect (and sometimes completely re-direct) your company. For this conference, this discussion was related solely to college foodservice.

This article was written by Dr. Mark Hymen and originally published here. Dr. Hymen is an industry leader on the topic of fats and oils, and is the author of "Eat Fat Get Thin". Today, he discusses the topic of coconut oil in detail, and how it's high level of saturated fats work within your body -- this will also answer why so much of the health food industry is hot on coconut oil right now, which was previously deemed a "bad oil" 10-20 years ago.

Have you turned over the back of a snack food bag lately? You’ll now find a whole army of claims and seals that wouldn’t have been there 10 years ago. These claims border the line between quality seals and marketing descriptors, and help back up the quality of the food inside.

Why so many claims? This is something that’s picked up over the last few years as quality seals have increased in importance and more and more people hold allegiance to a certain type of diet like vegan or paleo.

Today I’m going to go through a list of the most common quality claims, so that you can both understand what’s commonplace in the industry and determine if you’re missing any marketing opportunities or quality seals that your product should be taking advantage of.

Many of us have either a family member or friends that suffer from a food allergy. 

Listening to their stories of how disciplined they must be on a daily basis in order to avoid injury is absolutely amazing.  The things that I take for granted, such as walking into a convenience store to pick out a quick snack for my son aren’t so simple and quick if you have a loved one that suffers from a food allergy. 

Everyone working in the food industry from the plant manager to the temporary employee truly needs to have the same level of discipline each and every day because we are responsible for the well-being of our consumers in preventing undeclared allergens.

Approved Supplier Systems To Avoid Allergens

Approved supplier systems often get either overlooked or viewed as a system just to collect documentation. 

Should your healthy food company exhibit at Expo West or the Fancy Food Show? Perhaps both?

These two trade shows cater to the natural and specialty food industry here on the west cost. The question of which show to attend is typical for any marketing and sales team selling (or trying to sell) into Whole Foods Market or the natural section of any grocery store.

If you’re just starting to grow a young food company and comparing these two options, we’ll help you run through the pros and cons of each and compare these two popular food industry trade shows.

If you are buying a solid oil like organic coconut or organic palm oil and you’re getting it in a 55 gallon drum, you may encounter a predicament when you begin your production: how do you get this solid oil (often the consistency of butter) out of it’s packaging?

Unless you are buying smaller pails with a lid that you can pull off completely, “scooping” the oil out isn’t always an option. Many drums that have a solid oil inside require that you heat the oil first to melt it and turn it into a liquid to get it out.

What’s the best way to heat it? There are many different options, and I met with our production manager, Kevin Smith, who made a number of good suggestions. Here is what he recommends for those of you trying to melt your solid oil for the first time.

Vermont is the first state to pass a law requiring foods sold within it’s borders to have GMOs labeled.

This law, which originally passed in 2014, will go into effect on July 1, 2016. This small law is creating big ripples, and with the July deadline looming, major food manufacturers are changing their packaging to include voluntary GMO labeling on a national scale to meet Vermont’s requirements.

Why not make the change for just the food they sell in Vermont? The current retail distribution system is set up on a national scale: manufacturers sell to distributors, and these distributors sell to many different retailers throughout the US. Any state-specific labeling changes would add big costs both in packaging and in the segregation systems that would be required throughout the distribution channels.

This means that the laws for this one tiny state has made big food manufacturers go through some major labeling changes. Even though a national GMO labeling law hasn’t passed through federal government, the requirement for this one state is essentially having the same effect as a national requirement, and large brands are preparing for the changes they will have to make.

Working directly with restaurants and manufacturers we’ve noticed that the demand for Rice Bran Oil has skyrocketed in the last 3 years, especially for use in frying. Why is that? Well, there’s many reasons.

A consumer focus on healthier foods (especially oils) has caused restaurants to look for heart healthy, naturally GMO free options like Rice Bran Oil that have long shelf lives, hold up to commercial frying and are still economical.