Innovations in oilseed meals uses and applications - Research in progress

Abstract: Most of the commercially valuable plant oils are derived from seeds of higher plants. Remaining seed bio-mass or seed meal is a co-product of the oil recovery process and rich in non-oil components; protein, cell wall fibers and other minor components. Although the economic value is not comparable with oil, oilseed meals have a market value as a source of protein and fiber. Animal feed use allows complete use of oilseed meals however not the best way of extracting value for its components. Research publications of 100 years of JAOCS provide a cross-sectional view on the progression of innovations and diversification of oilseed meal uses and applications. With the developments in soy bean meal, use of various other oilseed meals as feed stock for generating plant proteins has been continued. Value of oilseed proteins has been exploited and investigated in three ways; as a macronutrient to release nutritionally significant amino acid monomer, as a polymer having reactive entities that can be converted to perform properties for non-nutritional purposes, and to generate partially or fully disintegrated entities of the protein polymers that have physiological importance or conversion into compounds with tangible functions. Scientific and industrial progress on oilseed meal component utilization show parallelism with the utilization demands for the respective plant oils and depends on the quality of protein and other meal components resulting from oil recovery processes. The present demand for alternative food proteins particularly from plant sources has become a dissociating factor for conventional uses of oilseed meals; a positive direction for technology innovations in generating enhanced economic value. This presentation will discuss how evidence-based scientific knowledge support the developments in oilseed meals uses and improve sustainability of plant oil industry by bringing diverse value propositions for the co-product meals with the highlights from JAOCS publications.