International News on Fats, Oils and Related Materials : INFORM back issues from March 2008:
Correction
Mar 01, 2008; ... In a December 2007 news story ("Australian states ready for GM canola"), the position of the company Goodman Fielder regarding GM ...
AOCS Meeting Watch
Mar 01, 2008; ... * April 13-16. SODEOPEC 2008, Milton in the Walt Disney World Resort, Orlando, Florida, USA. Information: www.aocs.org/meetings/sodeopec08; e-mail: connieh@aocs.org; phone: +1-217-693 4831. * Annual Meeting Short Courses May 17-18. 7th AOCS Edible Oil Refining Short Course: Process ...
From the editor's desk
Mar 01, 2008; ... This month's cover feature taps into a issue that affects a number of the interest areas served by AOCS-the issue of standards (see "Standardize. Rinse. Repeat.," page 142). Standards vary from region to region and industry to industry, their terms and definitions can overlap or ...
Record exports forecast by USDA
Mar 01, 2008; ... Late-breaking news At the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) Agricultural Outlook Forum, Secretary Ed Schafer said on February 21 that U.S. agricultural exports are forecast to reach a record $101 billion for fiscal year 2008, up $10 billion from November's forecast and an ...
STANDARDIZE. RINSE. REPEAT.
Mar 01, 2008; ... Overuse of the words "organic" and "natural" by marketers of personal care products has led to mass confusion in the minds of consumers. Will the expanding jumble of competing standards help or hinder? Consumers the world over spend billions of dollars on "organic" personal care ...
Biodiesel and renewable diesel
Mar 01, 2008; ... Until recently, biodiesel-defined as the mono-alkyl esters of vegetable oils or animal fats-was the usual form in which triacylglycerol feedstocks were used as alternative diesel fuel. Now petrodiesel-like fuels obtained from such or other biological feedstocks are receiving increasing ...
News & Noteworthy: Briefs
Mar 01, 2008; ... Palm oil imports into the European Union (EU) are already at "astonishing" levels and are set to grow even more, Heike Hintze-Gharres told the Home Grown Cereals Authority (HGCA) Oilseeds & Pulses Conference in Peterborough, U.K., on January 31. Hintze-Gharres, a market analyst with HGCA, ...
World supply and demand forecasts
Mar 01, 2008; ... Projected U.S. soybean ending stocks for 2007/08 were reduced 15 million bushels to 160 million this month (approximately 4.4 million metric tons [MMT]), down 72% from last year's record, and the lowest since 2003/04, according to the World Agricultural Supply and Demand Estimates (WASDE) report ...
Long-range price projections from USDA
Mar 01, 2008; ... According to the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA), long-range developments for global agriculture reflect continued high crude oil prices as well as strong demand for biofuels, particularly in the European Union (EU) and the United States. U.S. agricultural projections reflect large ...
Canola/rapeseed outlooks: Canada and China
Mar 01, 2008; ... Of the 14.7 million acres (almost 6 million hectares) planted to canola in Canada in 2007/08, roughly 10 to 15% were of high-oleic varieties, said Chris Anderson, vice president of crop production with the Canola Council of Canada. The market for hybrid canola oil is being driven by the ...
Will cloning affect the animal fats market?
Mar 01, 2008; ... Both the European Food Safety Authority (EFSA) and the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) recently concluded that meat and dairy products from cloned pigs, cattle, and goats and their offspring are safe for human consumption. If cloned animals and their offspring eventually enter the ...
Solae moves into new HQ
Mar 01, 2008; ... Solae moved into new, multi-million dollar headquarters in St. Louis, Missouri, USA, on March 1, 2008. A formal dedication ceremony will be held on April 3. The move merited a thumbs-up from AOCS member Phil Kerr, executive director of discovery research with Solae. "For the first time ...
Self-healing rubber developed
Mar 01, 2008; ... A research group in France has taken fatty acids and urea and, in a two-step process, created a type of rubber that when broken in two can be repaired by pressing the pieces together at room temperature. The work was done by a group led by Ludwik Leibler at the Soft Matter and Chemistry ...
Soy overtakes cattle in Argentina
Mar 01, 2008; ... Soybeans have become Argentina's main commodity, displacing cattle breeding and dairy farming, according to a report by the MercoPress news service. Farmers planted 16.9 million ha ...
Mali investigates gossypol in oil
Mar 01, 2008; ... An investigation by the government of Mali in West Africa found that only two out of 57 vegetable oil producers in the country had the necessary equipment to produce safely refined cooking oil, according to Africa News newsletter. The rest are ...
Palm oil conglomerate amassing capital for acquisitions
Mar 01, 2008; ... Sime Darby-the palm oil conglomerate that is the largest group on the Malaysian stock exchange-is amassing $5.8 billion for acquisitions, according to The Business newspaper of London. Sime Darby was created in November 2007 with the merger of three Malaysian companies: Sime Darby, ...
Acquisitions/divestitures/new projects
Mar 01, 2008; ... Bunge Europe, a subsidiary of Bunge Ltd. (White Plains, New York, USA), has acquired Walter Rau Lebensmittelwerke GmbH & Co. KG, a German producer of margarine. With the acquisition, Bunge Europe said in a news release it will become the market leader in the German private-label margarine ...
Biofuels News: Briefs
Mar 01, 2008; ... John Deere Risk Protection (JDRP; Johnston, Iowa, USA) is offering the industry's first-ever ethanol policy by providing coverage to corn producers who have delivery contracts for the purpose of ethanol production. The policy, available once a multiperil crop insurance policy has been purchased ...
Alternative feedstocks being investigated
Mar 01, 2008; ... Poppy seed. The Macquarie Oil Co. will spend AU$500,000 on a special facility in Cressy, in the Northern Midlands, to bring into operation Tasmania's first specialty biodiesel plant. Production is planned for more than 5 million liters (L) of fuel annually for the transportation and marine ...
U.S. EPA raises RFS for 2008
Mar 01, 2008; ... The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) has raised the 2008 renewable fuels standard (RFS), which determines how much nonpetroleum fuel will power the nation's vehicles, to 7.76%. The move is in response to the Energy Independence and Security Act (EISA), which President George W. Bush ...
"Nonnegotiable" vs. "adjustable" fuel standards
Mar 01, 2008; ... The energy bill signed into law by President George Bush in December 2007 (inform 79:25, 2008) called for the first major increase in required automobile fuel efficiency in 32 years. Cars, small trucks, and sport utility vehicles are supposed to have an industry-wide average of 35 miles/gallon ...
China and Brazil explore sweet cassava for ethanol production
Mar 01, 2008; ... Brazilian scientists have a large germplasm bank for manioc (Manihot esculenta; cassava) that includes sweet cassava mutants suitable for ethanol production. The Chinese Academy of Tropical Agricultural Sciences (CATAS) and state-owned Brazilian Agricultual Research Enterprise (EMBRAPA) have ...
Cassava ethanol plant being developed in Papua New Guinea
Mar 01, 2008; ... A USSlOO million (PGK280 million) cassava biofuel project is now taking shape in Central province of Papua New Guinea, aimed at cashing in on the growing popularity of ethanol-a cassava by-product. Funded by Korean firm Changhae Tapioka, the project is now on its first phase, in which ...
Ethanol pipeline proposed for U.S.
Mar 01, 2008; ... On February 19, Tulsa, Oklahomabased Magellan Midstream Partners and Breinigsville, Pennsylvania-based Buckeye Partners LP announced that they are assessing the feasibility of constructing a $3 billion dedicated pipeline to move ethanol 1700 miles (2700 km) from the Midwest to terminals in ...
Energy balance of biodiesel raised to 3.5
Mar 01, 2008; ... A new analysis presented February 6 at the National Biodiesel Conference & Expo in Orlando, Florida, USA, shows that the energy balance of biodiesel is a positive ratio of 3.5 to 1.0. That is, for every unit of fossil energy needed to produce the fuel over its life cycle, the return is 3.5 ...
Mexico's Sener to issue biofuels permits
Mar 01, 2008; ... According to Business News Americas, Mexico's Energy Ministry (Sener) will begin to issue permits for production, storage, transport, distribution, and sale of biofuels. The biofuels promotion and development law that went into effect February 2 provided the framework under which these ...
DuPont, BP targeting multiple butanol molecules
Mar 01, 2008; ... At the Agra Informa Next Generation Biofuels Conference held February 12-13 in Hamburg, Germany, DuPont Biofuels Venture and BP Biofuels Business Technology announced that the two companies have established a partnership to develop biocatalysts to produce 1-butanol as well as 2-butanol and ...
Feed prices curtail beef cattle herd expansion in U.S.
Mar 01, 2008; ... The predicted expansion of the U.S. beef cattle herd to at least 2009 is disappearing, and trends suggest this pattern may extend even further. Although steer prices are high and are expected to climb to the low- or mid-$90s through 2009, feed prices are continuing to climb as well. Feed ...
Demand for crude glycerine increases
Mar 01, 2008; ... In the face of a global glycerine shortage, prices are rising, according to both buyers and sellers. China and India in particular are seeking to buy crude glycerine, a coproduct of biodiesel production. Only 12 months ago, crude glycerine was considered more a nuisance than a commodity ....
Global trends in biodiesel to 2020
Mar 01, 2008; ... Emerging Markets Online (Houston, Texas, USA) has published a second edition of their report, Biodiesel 2020: Global Market Survey, Feedstock Trends and Forecasts, a multi-client study. Following an executive summary, the report considers in separate chapters the market for biodiesel in ...
Allegro Biodiesel tests crude jatropha
Mar 01, 2008; ... Global Clean Energy Holdings, Inc. (Los Angeles, USA) delivered its first shipment of crude jatropha oil from its plantations in Latin America to the United States for processing into biodiesel earlier this year. The recipient of this shipment was the production facility of Allego Biodiesel ...
Switching from beans to canola to...
Mar 01, 2008; ... Northwood Mills LLC, an oilseed-crushing plant in Northwood, North Dakota, USA, is not giving up on refining vegetable oil, but it is changing its emphasis. Where once it crushed soybeans to obtain oil for biodiesel manufacture, in mid-February Northwood Mills switched to crushing canola for the ...
BQ-9000 program raises fuel quality
Mar 01, 2008; ... Results presented in February by the National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL: Golden, Colorado, USA) at the National Biodiesel Conference and Expo in Orlando, Florida, showed that samples meeting national fuel quality standards represented 90% of the biodiesel produced in the United States in ...
Earthrace to circumnavigate world on biodiesel in hopes of setting speed record
Mar 01, 2008; ... On March 29, biofuel-powered Earthrace (www.earthrace.net/) is scheduled to leave the Vulkan Shipyard, Sagunto, Spain, in its attempt to set a new speed record for a powerboat to circumnavigate the globe. Sponsors hope to increase awareness of the environment and the sustainable use of ...
VeraSun Energy relocates to Sioux Falls, South Dakota
Mar 01, 2008; ... VeraSun Energy Corp. and US BioEnergy Corp., which announced their intentions to merge late last year, will relocate the corporate offices of the combined company from Brookings, South Dakota, USA, and St. Paul, Minnesota, respectively, to Sioux Falls, South Dakota. According to a company press ...
First commercial flight with biodiesel
Mar 01, 2008; ... On February 24, Virgin Atlantic conducted the world's first flight of a commercial aircraft powered with biofuel. The jumbo jet flight took place from London to Amsterdam. The airline said the purpose of the flight was to show that biofuel can produce less CO2 than normal jet fuels. The flight ...
Rohm and Haas/Groupe Novasep market method to purify glycerin
Mar 01, 2008; ... Rohm and Haas (Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, USA) and Groupe Novasep (Pompey, France) have formed a new partnership to market new technology for purifying crude glycerin generated during biodiesel synthesis. The technology is based on Rohm and Haas specialty polymer resins and Novasep's ...
Health & Nutrition: Briefs
Mar 01, 2008; ... Fish oil supplements specifically for companion animals have been around for some time, but now comes word that essential fatty acids administered orally alter the normal serum fatty acid profile of horses-something that has not been well studied to date. According to research led by Sheryl S ....
Plant sterols and the portfolio diet
Mar 01, 2008; ... New work on plant sterols indicates they may contribute more than one-third of the low-density lipoprotein cholesterol-lowering effects of the "portfolio" diet. Various dietary guidelines suggest patients use combinations of cholesterol-lowering dietary components, or a dietary portfolio, to ...
ALA and dry eye syndrome
Mar 01, 2008; ... Application of α-linolenic acid (ALA) via topical drops led to a significant decrease in clinical signs of dry eye syndrome in animal models in a new study led by Reza Dana of the Schepens Eye Research Institute (Harvard Medical School, Boston, Massachusetts, USA). Three groups of ...
EC proposes new labeling rules
Mar 01, 2008; ... On January 30, the European Commission (EC) proposed a system it said will make food labels "clearer and more relevant to the needs of EU consumers." Under the proposal, prepackaged food will have to display key nutritional information on the front of the package. General requirements on ...
FSA hopes to curb saturated fat intake
Mar 01, 2008; ... The U.K.'s Food Standards Agency (FSA) has announced the first steps of its plan to help reduce the amount of saturated fat and added sugars eaten by people in Great Britain. In particular, FSA wants to reduce population intakes of saturated fat from 13.3% to below 11% of food energy, which it ...
Vitamin D in the spotlight
Mar 01, 2008; ... An expanded role emerges for promoting health. Vitamin D is best known for its key role in forming and maintaining strong bones. Yet research is revealing that vitamin D may play additional roles in a growing list of benefits, and experts around the world are calling for a reassessment ...
Biotechnology News: Briefs
Mar 01, 2008; ... In February, seed collections began arriving at the Svalbard Global seed Vault, a facility being built as a failsafe seed bank for the world's vital food crops (see inform /8:797). The vault is located in an Arctic mountain near Longyearbyen, Norway, and is being built by that country's ...
Work on soybean, corn, pest genome advances
Mar 01, 2008; ... A team of scientists led by researchers at Washington University (St. Louis, Missouri, USA) announced in late February that they had completed a working draft of the corn genome, an accomplishment that should accelerate efforts to develop better crop varieties to meet growing demands for food, ...
Reports disagree over biotech's effect on hunger, pesticides
Mar 01, 2008; ... After a dozen years of commercialization, biotech crops are still gaining ground with another year of double-digit growth and new countries joining the list of supporters, according to a report released in mid-February by the International Service for the Acquisition of Agri-biotech Applications ...
EU farmers decry failure to approve GM crop imports
Mar 01, 2008; ... On February 20, the Financial Times reported that, after the EU's latest failure to agree on the approval of five biotech crop imports intended for animal feed, farmers warned that Europe's livestock industry could be decimated without greater access to GM crops. According to the report, the ...
Precision BioSciences, DuPont collaborate on crop development
Mar 01, 2008; ... DuPont (Wilmington, Delaware, USA) and Precision BioSciences Inc. (Durham, North Carolina) announced in February a technology collaboration to bring higher-yielding agricultural products to the market faster. Terms of the agreement were not disclosed. The agreement provides DuPont ...
Dow AgroSciences, Sangamo BioSciences announce milestone
Mar 01, 2008; ... Dow AgroSciences LLC (Indianapolis, Indiana, USA) and Sangamo BioSciences Inc. (Richmond, California, USA) announced in February the successful completion of a key research milestone as part of their joint Research and Commercial License Agreement: The successful application of Sangamo's zinc ...
Viterra, Evogene collaborate on improved canola traits
Mar 01, 2008; ... In February, Viterra (Regina, Saskatchewan, Canada) and Evogene Ltd. (Rehovot, Israel) announced a joint collaboration to develop canola with improved yield and tolerance to abiotic stress. Under the threeyear collaboration, the companies will assess a number of Evogene-discovered gene ...
S&D News: Briefs
Mar 01, 2008; ... Alticor Inc. (Ada, Michigan, USA) and its subsidiaries reported record sales of more than $7.1 billion for the year ended December 31, 2007, a 12% increase over the $6.3 billion recorded in 2006. Company officials attributed the increase to continued growth of strong Amway markets in Europe, ...
New Keroflux plant begins operation at Ludwigshafen site
Mar 01, 2008; ... BASF SE has started up a new Keroflux plant at its Ludwigshafen, Germany, site. The Keroflux® brands are refinery chemicals and so-called cold-flow improvers. They make sure that fuel and diesel continue to flow and do not solidify even at winter temperatures. This ensures that diesel vehicles ...
AOCS selects new JSD editor-in-chief
Mar 01, 2008; ... The American oil Chemists' Society (AOCS) has selected a new editor-in-chief for its Journal of Surfactants and Detergents, a quarterly peer-reviewed journal. The AOCS Governing Board recently approved the recommendation of a search committee and has announced that Jean-Louis Salager will now ...
Cognis acquires interest in InterMed Discovery
Mar 01, 2008; ... Cognis (Monheim, Germany), the global specialty chemicals supplier, has acquired an interest in InterMed Discovery GmbH (Dortmund, Germany) and at the same time signed a cooperation agreement. According to a Cognis press release, this cooperation with InterMed Discovery allows Cognis to ...
Akzo Nobel opens historic plant in Dubai
Mar 01, 2008; ... Akzo Nobel Powder Coatings (Amsterdam, the Netherlands) has opened a new factory near Dubai, the company's first manufacturing site in the United Arab Emirates. The investment, which represents an acceleration of the company's Middle East growth plans, follows on the recent acquisition ...
CSPA names new vice president, communications
Mar 01, 2008; ... The Consumer Specialty Products Association (CSPA: Washington, D.C., USA) has announced that Gretchen Schaefer has joined the Association's staff as vice president of communications. Schaefer has represented the business community on legislative, regulatory, and educational initiatives ...
Henkel intends to divest its stake in Ecolab
Mar 01, 2008; ... The Management Board of Henkel KGaA (Düsseldorf, Germany) has decided to undertake the divestiture of all or part of its stake in Ecolab Inc. (St. Paul, Minnesota, USA). According to a Henkel press release, no final decision has been made at this time as to the size, timing, or method of ...
New venue announced for 2010 SDA convention
Mar 01, 2008; ... The Soap and Detergent Association (SDA) Annual Meeting & Industry Convention will have a new look and a new locale in 2010, when the association moves its convention to The Grande Lakes Orlando, in Orlando, Florida, USA. The property includes a JW Marriott, a Ritz-Carlton, and more ...
IRI announces most successful new brands of 2007
Mar 01, 2008; ... The most successful new consumer packaged goods (CPG) brands were revealed recently by Information Resources Inc. (IRI), a global provider of consumer, shopper, and market insights for CPG, retail, and healthcare industries. The announcement was made at the 2008 IRI Reinventing CPG & Retail ...
Qatar Shell Research and Technology Centre lecture focuses on catalysis
Mar 01, 2008; ... On January 23 at the new Texas A&M University Qatar Campus in the Education City, the Qatar Shell Research and Technology Centre (QSTRC) organized a research and technology lecture entitled "Catalysis in Shell." The lecture was attended by representatives from Texas A&M, Qatar ...
Akoh, Purtle elected to lead AOCS
Mar 01, 2008; ... Casimir Akoh, distinguished research professor, The University of Georgia, Athens, Georgia, USA, was elected AOCS president in the 2008-2009 officer election. Ian Purtle, director, Process Solutions Technology Development Center and vice president, Cargill Inc., Minneapolis, Minnesota, ...
Bailey Award to be presented in Seattle
Mar 01, 2008; ... The 2008 Alton E. Bailey Award presentation to Professor Kiyotaka Sato for his work on the molecular aspects of structure-property-function relationships of fats will take place on Tuesday, May 20, during the Edible Applications Technology (EAT) Division dinner at the AOCS Annual Meeting & ...
In Memoriam: TOMÁS LIMON
Mar 01, 2008; ... Tomás Limon, a Universidad Autónoma de Guadalajara-educated chemical engineer, designed, built, and operated a solvent extraction plant for soybeans co. 1943 (he had to rectify his own hexane from gasoline!) and subsequently incorporated Aceitera Tapatia, which became a leader in extractions of ...
In Memoriam: JAMES BENJAMIN SCOGGINS
Mar 01, 2008; ... An analytical chemist for over 40 years with Hahn Laboratories, Columbia, South Carolina, USA, James Benjamin Scoggins passed away on December 27, 2007, at the age of 79. Scoggins received his bachelor's degree from the University of South Carolina (Columbia) and his master's degree from ...
In Memoriam: COURTLAND SYMMES, JR.
Mar 01, 2008; ... Courtland ("Skip") Symmes Jr. died on January 31, 2008, in Mount Pleasant, South Carolina, USA, at the age of 58. At the time of his death, he was technical director for MeadWestvaco Corporation, Charleston, South Carolina. He had been employed by MeadWestvaco for 30 years. He was known among ...