The National Sunflower Association (NSA) held a meeting of the minds in Bismarck, North Dakota last August. In addition to a site visit to the farms of Clark Coleman, on hand were Diliaria Iassonova, PhD, MD, director of the Fats and Oils Innovation and Foodservice teams at Cargill Inc.; Brian Owens, vice-president of oil procurement and risk management for Stratas Foods LLC; and Erik Heggen, president of North America Refined Oils at ADM.
The upcoming ban on trans-fats has sent many processors scrambling to fill the functional shoes while bettering the health profile of their products that previously were cooked in or contained the partially hydrogenated oils (PHOs) that are the main source of the offending fat form.