INFORM October 2024

8 • inform October 2024, Vol. 35 (9)

Across large swaths of the Canadian prairies and the United States’ Dakotas yellow canola flowers blanket the landscape. It is one of the most common oil-producing agricultural plants on the planet. When processing an oilseed plant like canola, the oil has historically been the primary product. As AOCS members know, producing clean oil in high yields can require high temperatures and harsh solvents. The leftover seed cake has historically been relegated to animal feed, unsuitable for human consumption, because of moisture and fiber that complex and denature the protein. New food chemistries with oleosomes Dan Samorodnitsky

However, the food industry seeks to identify alternatives to using highly purified ingredients and limit the copious resources their process ing requires. Subcellular structures within oilseeds, called oleosomes, are a recent curiosity for food scientists. Researchers in industry and aca demia are considering how to incorporate oleosomes as ingredients in food formulations while navigating some of their less preferred. “Oilbodies, like oleosomes, are the way that seeds store oil,” says David Dzisiak, the COO of Botaneco, an ingredient manufacturer based in Calgary, Alberta, Canada. They are to plants what fat deposits and lipo somes are to mammals. The essential organelles provide energy storage during seed dormancy and protect against environmental stress. They consist of a stable complex of triacylglycerols encased in a membrane composed of a continuous phospholipid monolayer embedded with hydrophobic proteins. Oleosomes range in size from less than a microme ter to 2.0 μm, depending on the source; they are found in both seeds and nuts. They are a core part of plant biology that, with further investiga tion, could provide the food industry with an ingredient that meets global sustainability goals. MAINTAINING STRUCTURE In conventional processing the oil bodies are crushed and the oil is squeezed out. The proteins holding oleosomes together—known as oleosins—collapse and the structure falls apart. Dzisiak says Botaneco extracts oleosomes intact using an aqueous process. When combined

• Oleosomes are natural emulsions inherent to oilseeds. • With a consumer focus on clean labels could this be the time for the food industry to commercialize these lipid filled vessels? • Hear from one ingredient producer who has proven the potential of oleosomes in multiple applications. • What hurdles remain for large-scale manufacturing of oleosomes?