Food Lipids: Chemistry, Nutrition, and Biotechnology

and mildness. Because the perennial nature of lauric oilseeds prevents quick response
to changes in supply and demand, and much of the demand side is inelastic owing
to the unique functionality of the oil, lauric oil prices are typically much more volatile
than prices for nonlauric oils (Fig. 5). Rising incomes and standards of living in
Southeast Asia and Eastern Europe are expected to result in an increase in consumption
of detergent and personal care products and, therefore, increased demand
for lauric oils. Nonetheless, most experts project that increases in palm kernel oil
production will compensate for increases in laurate demand and decreases in coconut
oil production. Lauric oil price volatility is expected to decrease from historic patterns,
but prices are expected to remain much more volatile than those for the nonlauric
products.
Under the circumstances just outlined, what better goal than to produce a temperate
source of C12 fatty acids in a triglyceride using the techniques of genetic
engineering coupled with traditional plant breeding? If high enough levels of C12
could be generated, several issues could be addressed:
1. The impact of wide fluctuations in commodity prices for world lauric oils
due to weather, natural disaster, political unrest, and other uncontrollable
factors could be mitigated by the development of an annual, temperate
oilseed crop that could be used to offset the unpredictability of some of
these tropical crops and to stabilize the pricing of the desired fatty acids.
2. Environmental concerns associated with the use of petrochemical products
favor conversion to plant-oil-based products that are biodegradable and
renewable. Chemical processing plants devote a significant portion of their
capital to postproduction cleanup systems to minimize the environment
stress. Use of plant oil feedstocks would ease environmental concerns and,
presumably, reduce manufacturing costs.
The real world, however, imposes the following constraints:
Figure 5 Coconut oil prices: average price by year, in U.S. dollars per pound as crude oil
delivered.
Copyright 2002 by Marcel Dekker, Inc. All Rights Reserved.