Soybean oil

Soybean oil, also called soyabean oil in British English, is a type of vegetable oil taken from soybean legumes. It comes from the soybean plant, Glycine max, and is very common around the world.

This oil is one of the most used cooking oils and is the second most eaten vegetable oil. People use it for many things besides cooking. When it is processed in a special way, it can become a drying oil. This means it can be used as a base for making printing inks, called soy ink, and for oil paints.

Composition

Soybean oil has very little fat that can break down easily. Instead, it mainly has esters, which are a type of fat. For every 100 grams of soybean oil, there are 16 grams of saturated fat, 23 grams of monounsaturated fat, and 58 grams of polyunsaturated fat.

The most common fats in soybean oil are linoleic acid (about 51%), oleic acid (about 23%), and alpha-linolenic acid (about 7–10%). It also contains stearic acid (about 4%) and palmitic acid (about 10%). Some companies have made special soybean oils with less of a certain type of fat to make them better for cooking. Sometimes, a process called hydrogenation is used to change the oil, but this can create small amounts of another type of fat called trans fat.

Production

In 2022, China was the biggest maker of soybean oil, making about 29% of all the soybean oil in the world. The United States of America came next, making about 21%.

Manufacturing

To make soybean oil, soybeans are first cracked and their moisture level is checked. They are then heated to a warm temperature, rolled into thin pieces, and a special liquid called hexane is used to pull the oil out. After this, the oil is cleaned and mixed for different uses. Sometimes, it is changed through a process called hydrogenation. This oil can be sold as “vegetable oil” or used in many foods. The leftover part, called soybean meal, is mostly used to feed animals.

Applications

Soybean oil is very popular for cooking, frying, and baking. People also use it to add flavor to salads.

Because soybean oil can harden when left out in the air, it is used in some printing inks and oil paints. It can also help provide important nutrients in special medical foods. Additionally, it is used in some products to help make insect repellents last longer.

Trading

Soybean oil is bought and sold at the Chicago Board of Trade in groups of 60,000 pounds (27,000 kilograms). Prices change in small steps, and this type of trading has been happening there since 1951. Once, soybean oil was part of a big problem called the Salad oil scandal, which caused losses of $180 million.

Below are the CQG contract specifications for Bean Oil: