Soybean oil is traded at the Chicago Board of Trade in contracts of 60,000 pounds at a time. Prices are listed in cents and thousandths of a cent per pound, with a minimum fluctuation of 5/1000 cents. It has been traded there since 1951.
How is soybean processed?
Modern soybean processing starts with solvent extraction to obtain crude oil and defatted meal. Most defatted meal is used for animal feed and only a small portion is further processed into different types of soy protein products for human consumption (see Chapter 8). Crude oil contains variable amounts of nontriglyceride materials.
What is modern soybean oil?
Modern soy oil is a stable high quality triglyceride ingredient used widely in commercial processed foods. It is without other lipid contaminants and available at a reasonable cost. Modern soybean processing starts with solvent extraction to obtain crude oil and defatted meal.
How is soybean oil made?
Shijing, the Book of Odes, contains several poems mentioning soybeans. To produce soybean oil, the soybeans are cracked, adjusted for moisture content, heated to between 60 and 88 °C (140 and 190 °F), rolled into flakes, and solvent-extracted with hexanes. The oil is then refined, blended for different applications, and sometimes hydrogenated.