Page 34 - MEX-Yearbook-2017

Commodity Insights

Soybean Oil

Introduction
Soybean oil is used to promote the flavor of prepared foods. It is used to for
making sauces, salad dressings and baked goods. The oil is extracted from
the Soybeans that provide a healthy lifestyle with low content of saturated
fat. It does not have cholesterol. It has high smoking point at which the
oil smokes and provides a burnt smell to food being cooked. The oil is
dark yellow to faint in color. It is a great source of healthy fats such as
polyunsaturated fats and omega-3 fatty acids. Soybean is an ancient crop
that is cultivated in Chinese islands few hundred years before then was
introduced to rest of the world. Currently, it is cultivated commercially in
Brazil, U.S., China, Argentina and India.
Soybean is native to East Asia. Soybean was traced in 11th BC from eastern
half of North China. The production of soybean was localized after China to
Japan war of 1894 to 1895 in China. The shipments of soybean were made
to Europe in 1908. The word soybean was firstly used in 1804. Recently,
the annual consumption of edible oils is more than 28 billion pounds of
American. Korea and Mexico are considered to be the highest consumers
of US.
Soybean oil has high content of leucine, threonine, isoleucine, tryptophan,
glutamic acid and aspartic acid. It also contains Vitamin K, A, E and C. The
minerals such as copper, calcium, magnesium, manganese, selenium, zinc,
phosphorus and iron are also found in it.

33 | MEX NEPAL YEAR BOOK 2017