Food fats and oils have been through some major changes lately. Many consumers are now wise to the unhealthy trans fats and oils in food. With so many people choosing to avoid transfats, or hydrogenated oils, it's best to find a source of the heart healthy oils, such as canola oil, so you know your feeding your customers the best.

Wholesale vegetable oil selection means more than price. The cost of operation is certainly one thing to consider, but advertising your healthy choice of food oils is sure to bring in customers wanting the product and not the transfat. Not only that, your product will have a great natural taste without the rubbery texture of the chemically altered hydrogenated oils.

Consider these healthy and economical food fats as an alternative to the hydrogenated fats:

1. Canola oil, made from rapeseed
2. Safflower oil
3. Sunflower seed oil

Action Steps
The best contacts and resources to help you get it done

Find a source of canola oil

Canola oil, also known as rapeseed oil, has a low saturated fat content, only six percent. This translates into healthier lower saturated fat foods for your customers. This may also translate into higher profits in certain markets in the way of higher pricing of products and increased specialized market share.

I recommend: Welch, Holme & Clark Co., which distributes over 30 kinds of food grade and other oils, supplies wholesale quantities of canola oil and has a friendly support staff to help you with your order. Contact them via telephone at 973-465-1200 and you'll get to a member of their sales staff immediately. Parchem Trading Limited has canola oil in wholesale quantities as well and sell in barrel quantities, but their method of contact is a bit less personal, preferring their potential customers to create log in information to access their ordering page.

Consider safflower oil for deep fry and other applications

Safflower oil has a high flash point, so it performs well under deep frying, maintaining its quality under the extreme heat that deep frying requires. It also has more unsaturated fat than any other food grade cooking oil. Current studies indicate that safflower oil may even improve symptoms of arteriosclerosis.

I recommend: Jedwards International is a suppler of bulk natural oils to the foods and cosmetics industries. This suppler is based out of the US but serves a global client base. They also have a large selection of organic oils for organic food processing. Arista Industries supplies the industry several different types of natural vegetable oils, safflower being one of them.

Consider using sunflower seed oil

The highly stable properties of sunflower oil make it a great cooking oil for the foods industry. The Omega-9 content of sunflower oil also makes it better for your customers as well.

I recommend: Dow AgroSciences provides a sunflower and soy-based product called Omega-9 Oils. This oil claims to have a longer stability. Oilseeds International, Limited has supplied vegetable oil to the foods industry for over 50 years. They carry sunflower oil and display the spec sheet of their product on their website as well as a contact form to set up a quote for your business' needs.

Tips & Tactics

Helpful advice for making the most of this Guide

• •  Keep your cooking oil needs to a minimum by tossing out the hydrogenated oils. Not only does your customer benefit from healthier foods, you also benefit your bottom line.