SDA Omega-3 Soybean Oil Now GRAS

ST. LOUISMonsanto Company and Solae, LLC, announced that FDA issued a Generally Recognized as Safe (GRAS) notice confirming that stearidonic acid (SDA), omega-3 soybean oil from a Monsanto-bioengineered soybean can be used in foods and beverages under the intended conditions of use.

The GRAS notice, GRN No. 283, allows the long-chain omega-3 oil to be used in baked goods and baking mixes, breakfast cereals and grains, cheeses, dairy product analogs, fats and oils, fish products, frozen dairy desserts and mixes, grain products and pastas, gravies and sauces, meat products, milk products, nuts and nut products, poultry products, processed fruit juices, processed vegetable products, puddings and fillings, snack foods, soft candy, and soups and soup mixes, at levels that provide 375 milligrams of stearidonic acid soybean oil per serving. According to Monsanto, SDA soybean oil contains 15%  to 30% SDA and 5% to 8% gamma-linolenic acid (GLA), vs. 0% SDA and GLA in conventional soybean oil. The SDA soybean oil is expected to be either added to foods or used as a replacement for unhydrogenated vegetable oils.

The SDA soybeans will supply a land-based source of long-chain fatty acids. SDA, 18:4 (n-3), can be efficiently converted by the human body to eicosapentaenoic acid (EPA), 20:5 (n-3).

Monsanto and Solae have a 2007 agreement to develop and market omega-3 products.