Food Lipids: Chemistry, Nutrition, and Biotechnology

of acres that can be planted; in the former case, capital-intensive hard assets may be
required in the form of manufacturing plants.
Of course, the possibility of competitive products becoming available and concerns
about the profitability and financial return on investment versus risk are critical
concepts for the private sector entities considering the development of new food
lipids via the genetic engineering of crop plants. On the other hand, certain targets
of lipids modification that will not pass these private sector hurdles for profitability
versus risk may nonetheless have value and importance to the human community.
For example, a cottonseed oil lacking malvalic acid (see Sec. IV.B.4) may not be
able to command much of a premium over regular cottonseed oil as long as cheap
soybean oil (which naturally lacks malvalic acid) is also available. This might be a
lipids modification project that could appropriately by undertaken by public sector
research groups like the U.S. Department of Agriculture, since the benefit could be
spread among a large number of independent cooperative ginning entities throughout
the cotton-growing delta of the Mississippi River. Similarly, improving the nutritive
value of lipids in rice may not be attractive to private sector companies for many
reasons, including the long and perhaps risky research phases that would be necessary,
the structure (or lack of structure) in how rice planting seed is sold, the prevalence
of small (subsistence) family farms in specific growing regions of Asia, and
the resistance of farmers to paying premiums. But clearly, if the technology can be
used to improve traits like carotenoid or vitamin content even slightly in a basic
commodity foodstuff, the benefits would be tremendous to society at large.
The important issue to address regarding public sector initiative research on
tailored vegetable oils is the coordinated recognition of technical feasibility along
with marketplace-defined needs (e.g., shelf life or processing traits like colors or free
fatty acid content) and consumer common interest objectives (e.g., levels of atherogenic
saturated fatty acids or essential dietary fatty acids). How this process sorts
out common-good objectives and provides for the necessary funding and coordination
of properly qualified laboratories, plant breeding organizations, and the equally
necessary product development and introduction functions is a challenge for everyone
working in areas relating to foods and health.
C. Target Crops
As of this writing, efficient systems exist to transfer genes into select tissue types of
rapeseed (including canola), soybean, cotton, and corn; it is then possible to regenerate
transgenic plants with normal growth habits and harvest yields similar to parental
types. Thus, transgenic crops are already in commercial production (or there
are existing seed sales) for transgenic canola, cotton, corn, and soybean.
Success has been reported by a few groups for similar gene transfer and regeneration
steps for sunflower, flax, and peanut. The procedures for these and perhaps
other temperate zone annual oilseed crops like safflower and sesame will likely
become routine relative soon.
Because of the long generation times and the related lack of regeneration cell
biology knowledge, current prospects for transgenic oil-producing tree crops like oil
palm, coconut, olive, and cacao are less encouraging. Also of food interest is the
modification of the fatty acids in oils of almond, walnut, and other nuts that tend to
oxidize and produce off-flavors after storage. The time required with tree species to
Copyright 2002 by Marcel Dekker, Inc. All Rights Reserved.