Healthy Oil Products From Thailand, Rice Bran Oil

As consumers become increasingly health-conscious, it’s more important than ever for food manufacturers to choose their ingredients carefully. Arista Industries offers a wide range of plant-derived oils, including olive, rice bran, safflower and sunflower oils, that can help manufacturers create healthy, appealing food products.

Primarily imported from Spain and Italy, Arista’s olive oil can be used for cooking, baking and as a condiment. Olive oil contains monounsaturated fatty acids, making it a healthy fat that can be used to replace detrimental fats in many food applications. In 2004, FDA allowed a qualified health claim for monounsaturated fat from olive oil for reduced risk of coronary heart disease. The oil also contains several minor healthy components, including the antioxidants beta carotene and tocopherols, and magnesium-rich chlorophyll. It also contains phenolics and phytosterols, which have antioxidant effects and have been shown to inhibit low-density lipoprotein (LDL) cholesterol absorption.

There are three primary grades of olive oil: extra virgin, pure and pomace/ Grade B. Extra virgin is first-pressed oil, which is only filtered, not processed or refined. It has a dark-green to golden color, and smells and tastes like olives. Pure olive oil is pressed, then refined. This results in oil that is lighter in color and flavor than extra virgin oil, and is golden yellow with a green undertone. Grade B, or pomace olive oil, is chemically extracted and fully refined. This has very little olive flavor or smell, but still provides the healthy benefits of olive oil.

Rice bran oil is chemically extracted, then fully refined, bleached, deodorized and dewaxed, or winterized, depending on the application. Rice bran oil is popular in several countries for use as a frying, cooking and salad oil, due to its high smoke point and delicate flavor. It has good stability, flavor and shelf life, as well as an acceptable cost and strong consumer appeal. Further, rice bran oil has been shown to help reduce cholesterol and the risk of cardiovascular disease. The oil has a good fatty-acid profile and is a rich source of antioxidants and micronutrients, as well as tocopherols and tocotrienols.

Safflower oil is typically pressed, then chemically extracted as well as fully refined, bleached and deodorized. It is a flavorless, pale-yellow oil that contains more polyunsaturates than any other oil. It has a high smoke point, making it ideal for deep frying, and is also popular for use in salad dressings because it does not solidify when chilled. Safflower is an annual oilseed crop. There are two types of safflower oil: oleic, which is high in monounsaturated fatty acids, and linoleic, which is high in polyunsaturated fatty acids.

High-oleic safflower oil is currently in demand, as it is lower in saturates and higher in monounsaturates than olive oil. This type of safflower oil is heat stable and used for frying french fries, chips and other snack items. It is also used in food coatings and infant food formulations.

Sunflower oil is chemically extracted, then fully refined, bleached, deodorized and winterized. It is light in flavor and appearance, and supplies more vitamin E than almost any other vegetable oil. This versatile, healthy oil is valued all over the world for its light taste, frying performance and health benefits. It contains a combination of monounsaturated and polyunsaturated fats and has low saturated-fat levels.

There are three types of sunflower oil: linoleic, mid-oleic and high-oleic. Linoleic is a common cooking oil that has high levels of polyunsaturates. It is also known for having a clean flavor and low levels of trans fat. High-oleic sunflower oils are classified as having monounsaturated levels of 75% and above. Sunflower oil has been shown to have cardiovascular benefits, as its low fat content and high level of oleic acid help lower cholesterol.

Author: Most, M. M., Tulley, R., Morales, S., Lefevre, M.

Rice bran, a coproduct of milled rice, and its oil may have cardiovascular health benefits. Human consumption of rice bran has been limited, primarily because of the rapid onset of rancidity in rice bran, but methods to stabilize rice bran and to extract its oil have been developed. Interest in rice bran grew from the determination that the inclusion of oat bran in the diet lowers serum cholesterol. Studies of rice bran supplementation in humans found similar beneficial effects on lipoproteins. In a 10-wk controlled feeding trial, rice bran was as effective as oat bran in lowering blood cholesterol concentrations in men and women with moderately high blood cholesterol concentrations.

Rice bran contains 10–23% oil and (unlike oat bran) negligible amounts of water-soluble
-glucans and larger amounts of insoluble dietary fiber. Because of these differences, it is believed that rice bran lowers cholesterol by a mechanism different from that of oat bran. Decreases in cholesterol were found in hypercholesterolemic subjects who replaced their usual cooking oils with rice bran oil and in middle-aged and elderly subjects consuming a low-fat diet containing rice bran oil. Yet rice bran oil typically contains 20% saturated fatty acids and approximately equal amounts of oleic and linoleic fatty acids. Previous research showed the deleterious effects of saturated fatty acids on total cholesterol concentrations, and the fact that rice bran oil lowers cholesterol is contrary to these findings. Research now suggests that rice bran oil’s cholesterol-lowering properties are explained by its unsaponifiable components more than by its fatty acid composition. Attention has begun to focus on the components of rice bran oil, including phytosterols, triterpene alcohols, tocopherols, and tocotrienols, as possible hypocholesterolemic agents.

We examined further the cholesterol-lowering abilities of rice bran’s fiber and oil apart from its fatty acid composition. This was accomplished with 2 well-controlled feeding studies designed to evaluate the effects of using defatted rice bran and rice bran oil in an average American diet on cardiovascular disease risk factors in men and women.