Soybeans vs. Other Vegetable Oils as a Source of Edible Oil Products

Publisher Summary Soybeans are very important in the world production of oilseeds. Soybean dominance comes from a variety of factors, including favorable agronomic characteristics, reasonable returns to the farmer and processor, high-quality protein meal for animal feed, high-quality edible oil products, and the plentiful, dependable supply of soybeans available at a competitive price. Salad and cooking oils or frying fats can be made almost solely from soybean oil. This chapter discusses other vegetable oils such as palm oil, peanut oil, corn oil, etc., and illustrates their properties and oil content. However, properly processed soybean oil has been established as high-quality oil suitable for most edible oil uses. With the possible exception of canola, most other commercial oil sources probably will not expand to the same extent as soybean oil because of agronomic, compositional, or other characteristic limitations.