Bunge Limited and DuPont have announced a new soybean oil that enables food service providers and food processors to reduce or eliminate trans fatty acids in their products.

The oil will be marketed as NUTRIUM(TM) Low Lin Soybean Oil. It will be the first product sold under the NUTRIUM(TM) brand, which was created as part of an alliance between Bunge and DuPont.

NUTRIUM(TM) Low Lin comes from Pioneer(R) variety 93M20, developed by DuPont subsidiary Pioneer Hi-Bred International, Inc. The new soybean variety features oil with a low linolenic acid profile of less than 3% and offers better natural stability and increased shelf life. When used for frying, low linolenic oil eliminates the need for partial hydrogenation.

"NUTRIUM(TM) Low Lin will help food companies reduce or eliminate trans fats from their products," says Carl Hausmann, president and CEO of Bunge North America. "With the alliance, Bunge and DuPont can ensure a high-quality product, reliable supply and efficient delivery from the plant breeder to the farmer to the food company."

Bunge will manage marketing and distribution of NUTRIUM(TM) Low Lin to food service providers and food processors, who, in 2003, used more than 5 billion pounds of frying oil. The industry has been looking for alternative oils because the U.S. Food and Drug Administration will require the inclusion of trans fats on food nutrition labels in 2006.

Pioneer(R) variety 93M20 is the first commercially available low linolenic soybean product variety with yield and weed control options that are competitive with the best soybean varieties on the market. In addition to having the popular Roundup Ready(1) herbicide resistance trait, the variety comes to the market with three years of performance data.

"We've been developing soybeans with improved oil since 1991 and that's why we can deliver this improvement in varieties with the complete genetic package that farmers today demand," says John Soper, DuPont soybean research director.