North Dakota is a global leader in producing top-quality soybeans for the edible oil world market. Processed soybeans are the world's second largest source of vegetable oil with high portion further processed as partially hydrogenated soybean oil as food ingredients. However, under the new rule from the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA), manufacturers cannot add partially hydrogenated oils (PHOs) to foods after June 18, 2018 with the compliance date extension for certain uses of PHOs. Additionally, the Dietary Guidelines for Americans (20152020) and the World Health Organization (WHO)’s Guidelines on Saturated Fatty Acid and Trans-Fatty Acid Intake for Adults and Children both recommend to consume less than 10 % of calorie from saturated fats per day by replacing saturated fats with unsaturated fats to decrease risk for noncommunicable diseases. The food manufacturers who used to use soybean based PHOs or high saturated fats indubitably need to reformulate their products by replacing PHOs or saturated fats with unsaturated fats to comply with the new regulation and respect nutritional recommendations. It is thus urgent to develop novel technique so that soybean oil will not lose this traditional market. In this project, we will develop semisolid soybean oleogels using expeller pressed soybean oil and minimal amounts of gelators. With this knowledge, technologies will be developed to make soybean oleogels to substitute PHOs, which will allow more unsaturated soybean oil to be used in the food and bakery industry thus making the foods healthier and stabilizing soybean market in food industry.

The long term goal of this research is to develop premium semisolid oleogels using expellerpressed soybean oil (regular and high oleic soybean oil). Such oleogels can be used to replace other shortenings for edible applications. Three objectives will be pursued to achieve the goal: 1) Quantifying the minor constituents (phospholipids, tocopherols, free fatty acids, carotenoids) in expeller-pressed soybean oil.
2) Understand the role of these minor constituents on the physical, chemical, and rheological properties of soybean oleogels prepared with different gelators.
3) Optimizing the gelators with minimal concentrations in preparing soybean oleogels for cookie making.

The eventual deliverables and results will include: 1) a better understanding of the impact of minor constituents on soybean oil oleogels; 2) technology performance metrics including firmness, rheological and thermal properties of oleogels optimized by gelator mixtures; and 3) cookies made by using soybean oleogels instead of shortening.

Update:
North Dakota Soybean Council 2021 mid-year report
Development of Expeller-Pressed Regular and High Oleic Soybean Oil Oleogels for Edible Applications
Bingcan Chen, Assistant Professor
Department of Plant Sciences, North Dakota State University
1. Objectives of the research
The overall goal of this research is to utilize expeller-pressed (EP) regular and high oleic soybean oil for the preparation of oleogels. Such oloegels can be used to replace partially hydrogenated soybean oil in the bakery industry. Three objectives will be pursued to achieve the goal:
1) Preparation and characterization of expeller pressed soybean oil
2) Preparation and characterization of soybean oleogels
3) Elucidating the impact of fatty acid composition on the properties of cookies
2. Completed work
The objective one has been completed. We have prepared sufficient amount of expeller-pressed regular and high oleic soybean oil using a low-shear screw oil expeller (Model DD 85 G-1, Komet IBG Monoforts, Mönchengladbach, Germany). The EP oil has been collected, filtered, and centrifuged (3,250 g for 20 min) to remove any impurities.
3. Preliminary results
The fatty acid profile of two types of EP soybean oil
The fatty acid profile of two EP soybean oils were analyzed by using gas chromatography (GC 2014, Shimadzu, Japan) with a flame ionization detector (FID).Fatty acid methyl esters (FAME) were derivatized from soybean oils by using 2% sulfuric acid–methanol solution at 100 oC in a heated block for 30 min.
The fatty acid profile of expeller-pressed regular soybean oil was: C16:0 10.23%, C18:0 3.67%, C18:1 19.23%, C18:2 52.78%, C18:3 n6 14.28%; while that of high oleic soybean oil was: C16:0 8.80%, C18:0 3.56%, C18:1 69.36%, C18:2 12.06%, C18:3 n6 0.29%, C20:0 5.60%, and C22:0 0.34%.
Such information could help us understand the different physicochemical properties of the soybean oleogels.
4. Work to be completed
Next step, we will focus on the Objective two and three. Oleogels will be fabricated by expeller-pressed (EP) regular and high oleic soybean oil. The physical properties of the oleogels including crystal structure, morphology, thermal properties, and viscoelastic properties will be characterized using XRD, polarized microscope, DSC, and rheometer. The cookies will be prepared by the oloegels according to the AACC standard method. The rheological and texture properties of cookies will also be evaluated.

Update:

View uploaded report

o Research conducted
We fabricated soybean oleogels (solidified oil) using expeller-pressed (EP) high oleic soybean oil.
We used a single food-grade gelling agent (monoglycerides,or sunflower wax) to produce soybean oil oleogels with different properties.
We tested the physical and flow properties of the oleogels.
We compared the properties of cookies made by the EP high oleic soybean oleogels and commercial shortenings.
We studied the chemical stability of the EP high oleic soybean oleogels and the cookies.
o Why the research is important to ND soybean farmers
Partially hydrogenated soybean oil cannot be used in the food industry.
It is urgent to develop novel techniques or food processing to increase the value of soybean oil.
Expanding the utilization of high oleic soybean oil will benefit consumers.
o Final findings of the research
Expeller-pressed high oleic soybean oil could produce stable and strong oleogels
Expeller-pressed high oleic soybean oil requires the lowest amount of gelator (3 wt%) to form fine gel network.
The cookies prepared using EP high oleic soybean oil oleogel had similar physical properties as those made by commercial shortening.
EP high oleic soybean oil oleogel could delay the lipid oxidation of cookies.
The innovated EP high oleic soybean oil oleogels can be applied by the bakery industry as novel functional food ingredients.
o Benefits/Recommendations to North Dakota soybean farmers and industry
The huge market potential to replace the saturated fats and partially hydrogenated soybean oils in foods using high oleic soybean oil oleogel will result in an increased demand and price stability for ND soybeans farmers.
High oleic acid soybean oil with less unsaturation may be an ideal candidate to produce oleogels for the bakery industry to produce healthier baking products with improved shelf-life.

The proposed research will develop technique to structure expeller pressed soybean oil into semisolid fat that can replace PHOs and tropical oil in edible applications. The accomplishment of this research will therefore benefit North Dakota soybean farmers, food industry, and consumers. The research results and innovated soybean oleogel will make ND soybeans more marketable and promote additional value for the soybean crop. The huge market potential to replace the saturated fats in foods using solidified soybean oleogel will result in an increased demand and price stability for ND soybeans. This will result in better profitability for the ND soybean farmers. It will also attract soybean oil processor and food companies to North Dakota.