Cottonseed oil

Description

The seed fibres of cotton provide the basis for textile fibres. After the separation of these fibres, the cotton seeds that remain are a valuable raw material for a variety of foodstuffs and feed.

In the processing of cotton seeds, oil and shred accumulate. The protein-rich shred is used primarily as animal feed

Application

Cotton seed oil is a high-quality oil that is used:

• as cooking oil (vegetable oil)
• in soil form for the production of margarine and as shortening or dripping (fat hardening)
• for frying, for example of potato chips and other snacks

Gene technology

• GM-cotton is grown on a large scale in many countries, foremost in the USA, China and India. It may be assumed, that cotton seed oils are won from raw materials that at least partially may stem from GM plants.

• In the EU, several GM cotton plants are approved for use as food and feed. Individual approvals also include the processing of the plant to produce cotton seed oil.

Labelling: Oil from GM cotton is subject to labelling. However, the detection of GM cotton in ready-to-use, refined cooking oil is not possible as a rule.