High Oleic Oils: Development, properties, and uses

Frank Flider is a consultant focused on technical, marketing, and business development aspects of the oilseeds and agricultural biotechnology industries, with particular emphasis on high oleic soybean oils and commercial soybean oil. He has over 40 years of marketing, operations, and research experience in biotechnology, food ingredients, specialty chemicals, phospholipids, industrial oils, and edible oils.

Flider has been consulting with the United Soybean Board since 1996. He designed, developed, and managed USB’s functionality research program for high oleic soybean oil and high oleic soybean shortening and has published a number of articles and papers on this topic.

As VP of Business Development for Arcadia Biosciences, he developed and managed their GLA safflower oil program from gene licensing through research, product development, processing, and commercialization.

Prior to joining Arcadia Biosciences, he was a principal in the Rockridge Group, a consultancy focused on the agricultural biotechnology and oilseeds industries. Before forming Rockridge, Flider was general manager of Calgene Chemical, where he helped establish Calgene’s strategic direction for their genetically modified oils, which included laurate canola, low saturate canola, high erucic rapeseed, medium chain canola and long chain wax esters from canola.

Prior to joining Calgene, Flider served as executive director for the Jojoba Marketing Cooperative. He was also product manager and general manager for Riceland Foods' Soy Specialties Division, and a research chemist for A.E. Staley and Central Soya.

Flider holds a B.S. in Chemistry (with honors) from Elmhurst College and a certificate of business administration from the University of Illinois at Chicago. He is an active member of the American Oils Chemists' Society, where he sits on the editorial board of AOCS’s INFORM journal and the Journal of the American Oil Chemists Society. He is also a member of the Institute of Food Technologists. He is the author of numerous technical papers and commercial articles and holds three U.S. patents. Most recently, Flider served as editor for High Oleic Oils: Development, Properties and Uses, published in 2021 by AOCS Press.

Nurhan Dunford, Department of Biosystems and Agricultural Engineering, and Robert M. Kerr Food and Agricultural Product Center, Oklahoma State University, USA

Dr. Dunford has worked as an engineer and scientist in various positions in Europe, Canada, and the United States. In her current position at Oklahoma State University, in the Department of Biosystems and Agricultural Engineering Department, Dr. Dunford has teaching, research, and extension responsibilities. She is also on staff at the Robert M. Kerr Food & Agricultural Products Center as the oil/oilseed specialist.

Dr. Dunford’s research program at Oklahoma State University focuses on the water-food-energy nexus. The main objective of the program is the enhancement of the nutritional and economic value of plant-based materials through innovative processing while conserving water and reducing the impact of processing on the environment. Her expertise areas include oil/oilseed processing and quality; biofuels; biological wastewater treatment; functional foods/nutraceuticals; effect of processing on phytonutrients; recovery of biologically active, health benefits, and high-value components from agricultural materials; and value-added processing of industry waste streams and by-products using environmentally benign techniques.

Dr. Dunford works very closely with many industrial clients and provides technical support and consulting services. She is a Fellow of the American Oil Chemists’ Society (AOCS).

Michael Eskin, Food and Human Nutritional Sciences, University of Manitoba; Production and Innovation, Canola Council of Canada, Canada

Michael Eskin, a former Chair and Associate Dean, is in his 54th year as a Professor in the Department of Food and Human Nutritional Sciences, Faculty of Agricultural and Food Sciences, University of Manitoba, Winnipeg, Canada. He has done extensive research on edible oils and was involved in the development of canola oil. His research on food lipids, food carbohydrates, food phenolics, and Fetal Alcohol Spectrum Disorder, involves the interaction between food chemistry, nutrition, and human health.

Michael has published over 150 research papers, 70 chapters, and 17 books, including the third edition of his well-known textbook Biochemistry of Foods. He is the recipient of the IFT Stephen S. Chang Award, the Supelco AOCS Research Award, the AOCS Stephen S. Chang Award, the Alton S. Bailey Medal, Herbert J. Dutton Award, and the Timothy Mounts Award by the American Oil Chemists’ Society (AOCS).

In 2016, he received the Order of Canada and in 2021 the Order of Manitoba, for his pioneering research that led to the success of the Canadian canola oil industry. He was also elected Fellow of the Royal Society of Canada in 2021. In 2017, Dr. Eskin was voted by the student body of the Faculty of Agricultural and Food Sciences as Professor of the Year. This year he is the recipient of the 2022 IFT Lifetime Achievement Award in honor of Nicolas Appert. He is a Fellow of IFT, AOCS, the Canadian Institute of Food Science and Technology, and the Institute of Food Science and Technology in the UK. He sits on the editorial boards of several international food and nutrition journals and on the Advances in Food and Nutrition Research Board. He is also well known for his lipid raps, used in universities around the world.

Richard Galloway, QUALISOY, USA

After a 25-year career in oilseed processing and vegetable oil refining, Richard began a second career providing specialized consulting services to domestic and foreign agricultural processing, vegetable oil refining, biodiesel and grain handling industries, and organizations and businesses that support these industries. Among his work was lead consultant to QUALISOY, a USB-funded and directed organization of representatives of the soybean value chain. Within this organization, much of the background for the analysis utilized in the 'Market Demand and Outlook' chapter of the High Oleic Oils: Development, Properties and Uses book was pioneered. Today, Richard focuses on assisting the food industry, the edible oil refining industry, and related businesses in finding frying oils, bakery shortenings, and other high stability edible oils to replace partially hydrogenated oil and food ingredients high in saturated fat.

Richard Heggs, OmniTech International LLC, USA

Mr. Heggs has been employed by OmniTech International for the last 5 years as the Director of Business Development working as the primary point of contact with Smith Bucklin and the United Soybean Board. Prior to joining OmniTech, Mr. Heggs was the owner and founder of his consulting firm The Material Solution LLC. For the majority of his 40-year career, Mr. Heggs worked for Battelle Memorial Institute the world’s largest independent contract research organization in a variety of roles. These roles have included individual researcher, group leader, department manager, and business development and marketing. Mr. Heggs has extensive experience in biobased materials in the specialty chemical, fillers, reinforcements, rubber and polymer industry.

Mike Honeychurch

Mike Honeychurch joined GO Resources as its business development manager in 2017. His responsibilities include managing the production of super high oleic safflower oil, market development for the super high oleic oil, and meal sales. Mike obtained a PhD in chemistry in the 90s and an MBA shortly after and has extensive experience in both commercial and academic chemical industries.

Susan Knowlton, North American High Stability Oils Group, Corteva Agriscience, USA

Susan is a Senior Research Manager with Corteva™ Agriscience and the technical lead on the North America Oils team responsible for commercial development of high oleic oils. Susan has worked on soy oil and protein functionality for over 25 years and has been the driving force in successfully bringing Plenish® high oleic soybean oil to the market. Susan joined DuPont in 1982 as a research scientist and has enjoyed a diverse set of professional and managerial positions within the company’s agriculture research organizations.

Throughout her career, she has championed the soy ‘output traits’ programs which seek to tailor crop compositions to improve the nutrition and functionality of food ingredients for consumers and food manufacturers. Susan has well over 20 published articles in scientific journals and books, speaks regularly at both national and international conferences, and is an inventor on six patents on high oleic soybean oil.

Dharma Kodali, Bioproducts and Biosystems Engineering, University of Minnesota, USA

Dr. Dharma R. Kodali has more than 40 years of research and teaching experience in academia and industry and is currently an Adjunct Professor in Bioproducts and Biosystems Engineering at the University of Minnesota. Dr. Kodali authored and co-authored over 75 publications and book chapters and edited two books on trans fats. He is an inventor/co-inventor on 30 patents. His accomplishments include Cargill’s Chairman’s Innovation Award (2001), the American Chemical Society’s Industrial Innovation Award (2002) and the American Oil Chemists’ Society (AOCS) T.L. Mounts Award (2003), Alton E. Bailey Award (2017), and Stephen S. Chang Award (2020). He is an elected Fellow of the American Institute of Chemists (2004) and an AOCS Fellow (2010). He has served in AOCS in various capacities for over 40 years.

Mark Matlock, ADM, USA

Mark Matlock joined ADM in 1980, where he developed an analytical instrument to measure vegetable oil stability index (OSI) that is widely used today. He has conducted enzymatic research leading to new soy protein ingredients and managed research that led to trans-free fats via an enzymatic interesterification technology. Mark Matlock is a past president of the American Oil Chemists’ Society (AOCS) and an AOCS Fellow. He retired from ADM in 2019 as the Sr. Vice President of Food Research.

Rick Della Porta, Measurement Sciences, PepsiCo GLobal R&D, USA

As the key resource for PepsiCo/Frito-Lay on Fats and Oils research, Rick has a long history of working with new methods for lipid research. His research includes chemical and physical analysis of lipids from seed to refined oil, application to oil analysis in finished food, and development of test methodologies for rapid analysis for the Quality Control points in manufacturing. He has done work on the correlation of oil properties to shelf-life performance and consumer response, to drive better stability and higher preference scores. His corollary work includes lipid-soluble component analysis, with emphasis on flavor and nutritional applications and implications.

Terrence Riley, Nutritional Sciences, Penn State University, USA

Terrence Riley is a doctoral candidate at The Pennsylvania State University and a Registered Dietitian. He completed the RD internship at Penn State’s Hershey Medical Center in 2019 with additional experience in clinical nutrition research and medical nutrition therapy for conditions of kidney and cardiovascular diseases. His graduate research focuses on the dietary impacts of biomarkers associated with chronic diseases. He is conducting a clinical trial examining the effects of nighttime snacking on fasting blood sugar, markers of cardiovascular disease (CVD), and the microbiome in individuals with prediabetes.

Additionally, he is the lead investigator on projects examining lipoprotein(a), a novel marker of CVD, and its relationship to lipid signaling and dietary changes. He has collaborated with researchers nationally and internationally on projects including textbook chapters on diet and CVD, diet quality in Brazilians after myocardial infarction, and physical and mental factors associated with Mediterranean diet adherence in students and faculty at the University of Grenada, Spain. Additional projects largely involve strengthening and developing nutrition recommendations in diet and disease.

Lucas Stolp, Bioproducts and Biosystems Engineering, University of Minnesota, USA

Lucas Stolp is a researcher and instructor in the department of Bioproducts and Biosystems Engineering at the University of Minnesota. He teaches bio-renewable resources and several lab courses. His research interests include the development of bio-plasticizers from natural oils to replace petroleum-derived phthalates and the role of endophytic bacteria in promoting plant growth. He published 10 papers in peer-reviewed journals and has three patents. He has been a member of AOCS for over eight years and received the Industrial Oil Products Division Outstanding Student Award in 2018 as well as the department Outstanding Civil Service Award in 2014.

Tom Tiffany, ADM, USA

Tom Tiffany is currently Director of Lipid Science and Applications for ADM. Tom has been with ADM for 30 years and has supported ADM Oils in various roles. Tom received a B.S. in Biology/Geography from Illinois State University, and a M.S. in Food Science from the University of Illinois.

Joshua Tuinstra, Stratas Foods, Bartlett, TN USA

Joshua Tuinstra received his BS in Chemistry from Michigan State University and his BS in Biology from Western Michigan University. Joshua previously worked with ingredients as a research scientist at Kalsec, Inc. with patents in xanthophyll, antioxidant, and modified hop extract applications. Joshua currently works as the Director of R&D at Stratas Foods LLC, overseeing innovation and product development. Stratas Foods is the largest packaged oil company in North America, supplying the manufacturing, food service, and private label retail sectors for shortenings, margarines, oils, mayonnaise and dressings.

Xuebing Xu

Xuebing Xu, Chief Scientist of Wilmar China/Yihai Kerry; PhD from the Technical University of Denmark; former professor in Aarhus University, Denmark; the first president of the International Association of Rice Bran Oil; the co-editor of the book on Rice Bran and Rice Bran Oil: Chemistry, Processing and Utilization (AOCS Press, 2019); the guest editor for the special issue on Rice bran: a potential resource for human consumption in Science and Technology of Cereals, Oils and Foods (volume 29, pages C5-C48, 2021). Selected awards received are AOCS Fellow, Chang Award from AOCS, European Lipid Technology Award from EuroFedLipids, International Award for Rice Bran Oil Research from IARBO, Distinguished Researcher from CCOA, etc.