Mid-oleic oil replacing trans fats

The New York Times Science page has a question and answer item on a new oil being used in place of high trans-fat partially hydrogenated oils.  The "new" oil comes from hybrid sunflowers that produce more oleic oil than conventional sunflowers. 

Oleic acid is a mono-unsaturated fat, like that found in olive oil, and mid-oleic oil is about 65 percent oleic acid. The rest is a low level of saturated fat and a moderate level of polyunsaturated fat, mostly linoleic acid.

Linoleic acid provides good taste when used for deep fat frying but deteriorates quickly in the vat and oxidizes on the shelf unless it is hydrogenated, producing trans fats. Raising the share of oleic acid obviates the need for hydrogenation or even partial hydrogenation without sacrificing taste, Agriculture Department researchers say.

The oil, called NuSun™, is not actually that new.  The USDA published an article in Agricultural Research Magazine in June 1998 extolling the virtues of NuSun™.  The sunflower hybrids wseem to have been developed primarily to reduce the need for costly hydrogenation.  But elimination of artificial trans fats was an additional benefit:

The costly processing step of bubbling hydrogen into polyunsaturated oils--partial hydrogenation--won't be required to protect against flavor deterioration. No hydrogenation means no formation of trans fatty acids that some nutritionists claim may be unhealthful. Not common in plants, trans fatty acids are geometrically altered forms of once polyunsaturated fatty acids, like linoleic and linolenic, that had multiple places for hydrogen atoms to bond, or saturate.

Link to National Sunflower Association's NuSun™ website.