Vegetable oils still lead the field over animal-based fats when it comes to new food oil developments. Perceived as healthier in that they contain more unsaturated fatty acids, they have faced challenges when it comes to cooking or baking, as they are not normally robust at the high temperatures needed in heat processing.
The drive to delete trans-fats from the American diet led to big changes in the industry. Among the most commonly used oils in the prepared foods industry, soybean oil, palm oil, and canola oil rank in the majority. Many processors are now switching to recently developed high-oleic versions of these popular and inexpensive oils and shortenings. These produce the fewest textural changes in baked products such as cakes and cookies, compared to a range of alternatives including partially hydrogenated oils and conventional oils.