Plenty Heart Smart Safflower Cooking Oil

Ideal for everyday Frying, Roasting, Baking and BBQ

How was our oil chosen for an award?

Healthy Food Guide Magazine Award – “Best Oil”

Healthy Food Guide Magazine is a well-known publication focused on healthy eating. It is highly respected by dieticians, who edit and contribute to its content. Annually, HFG awards healthy food winners in various categories. To determine the Awards, their team of dieticians choose products that meet their nutrition criteria for the various categories, then winners are narrowed down based on a mix of taste, nutrition, accessibility and price point. You can view all of the Award Winners here.

The Safflower plant

What is it?

Safflower has been cultivated by humans since the very beginning of agriculture. It grows well in Australian conditions and can tolerate environments with little water, making it a great crop for changing weather conditions. The ‘cake’ left after the oil is extracted is used as livestock feed, minimising waste and enhancing production efficiency.

Super high oleic safflower

CSIRO’s Super High Oleic (SHO) safflower, developed in conjunction with GRDC – Grains Research and Development Corporation, has significantly higher stability than conventional oils. It contains an amazing 92% oleic acid, a monounsaturated fatty acid.

How CSIRO developed the super high oleic safflower seed

During years of careful laboratory research, CSIRO used gene silencing technology to precisely target and switch off genes that limit oleic acid production in the safflower seed, thereby increasing the highly desirable oleic acid content. Conventional breeding would have switched these genes off throughout the whole plant adversely affecting plant growth and survival. CSIRO scientists overcame many challenges, but science and technology triumphed to produce a functional and healthy oil.

How is Safflower Oil made at Plenty?

As a separate, and subsequent process, Plenty have employed their own innovations in physical oil refining to ensure best retention of nutrients in the oil. How do we do this?

Plenty extracts the oil from the SHO safflower seeds naturally with state-of-the-art presses that use pressure and heat. Presses squeeze the oil from the seeds, then the oil is warmed and natural clay is used to absorb any impurities. Following high-pressure filtration, the warm oil is held in a vacuum and steam is applied to remove odours and any remaining impurities. The oil is then cooled and filtered to create a natural cooking oil with a mild flavour and soft mouth feel. The process is chemical-free and produces no waste by-products. Even the “cake” of leftover seed husks is fed to livestock.

Super High Oleic Safflower Cooking Oil – Benefits

Health

All oils are “fats”, and as such, should be consumed in moderation. However, some types of fats are reputedly better for you than others. Plenty Safflower Oil contains “over 92 per cent oleic acid…super high oleic safflower has the highest level of purity of an individual fatty acid present in any currently available plant oils.” – CSIRO

Oleic acid is an omega-9 fatty acid that is found in nature and most of our cells. Research shows that it may play an important role in human health and disease. Also, this oil has a smoke point of 266C. Heating an oil beyond its smoke point can cause the oil to break down and change its chemical structure, releasing compounds that may be harmful. Choosing an oil with a high smoke point guards against this. Plenty Super High Oleic Safflower Oil is also very high in monounaturated fat at 12.8g per 15mls, and low in saturated fats. (0.75g per 15 mls)

Cooking

Unlike other oils, Plenty Safflower Oil can be used successfully in both high temperature cooking, low heat cooking, or uncooked in dressings, slices and energy balls. With a very high smoke point of 266^oC, Heart Smart Safflower is one of the best oils for high heat cooking such as frying, stir-frying and barbequing because it is stable and produces very low amounts of adverse substances such as free radicals. The stability of the oil is related to the structure and the super low amount of polyunsaturated fatty acids which means it is not only an excellent oil for heating, but for reheating.

While other oils such as olive oil also contain healthy unsaturated fats Plenty Heart Smart oil has virtually no flavour, making it the perfect choice when you need the flavour of your food to stand out, such as with stir-fries, curries, deep frying, BBQ or baking. It also is liquid at cold temperatures, such as in the fridge, unlike some other fats and oils which go cloudy or solidify.

Supporting our local economy and farmers

Plenty Safflower Oil is 100% Aussie-made and grown. Many Australian farmers are entrusted to grow the safflower plants which it is hoped will provide them with a reliable income helping rural communities to thrive, as the plant’s commercial potential expands.

Environmental Impact

The safflower plant has a giant tap root, so its ability to find deep moisture gives it drought tolerance and an advantage over crops like canola, wheat and lentils. The tap root penetrates even compacted, dry soil, making it ideal for any climate and it helps to break down these compacted soils, conditioning the land for other crops as well. It has previously been used as a break crop for cotton. Research also suggests the crop thrives in salty and sodic soils. (ABC Rural, Courtney Fowler)

Sustainable supply

Due to the safflower plant’s hardiness, it is relatively easy to grow in any type of climate Australia has to offer, from harsh to temperate. This allows for continuous supply year-round, potentially avoiding growing problems and shortages found with some other plants and avoiding the need to resort to overseas imports.

Colour changes in Plenty Oils

To keep colour consistent in oils, food colour, additives, and bleaches are used in many products. Plenty relies only on the colour of the raw product, which can change from crop to crop. Clays can also be used in the physical refining process and can also affect colour. Therefore, sometimes there are variations in the colour of our pressed oils. This is perfectly natural and does not affect the quality of the oil or it’s nutrient profile.

(Click the image below to download our Dietician FAQ)

You can find Plenty Heart Smart Safflower cooking oil at Woolworths.

Some common cooking oil fat profiles are listed below: