SirHydrogenation has been the US Industry standard for manyyears because the technology allows the formulation of awide variety of spreads, shortenings and frying fats fromsoybean and other liquid oils [1–3]. Typically, soybean oilhydrogenated from an iodine value of 135–110 serves as asalad orcooking oil, whereas, at IVs of 65–80, spreadshortening basestocks result that, when blended with liquidoil or stearines, yield soft, stick spreads and baking/fryingshortenings. Since soybean oil contains 7–8% linolenicacid that must be lowered or removed completely foroxidative stability, selective conditions are employedmeaning high temperatures, low hydrogen pressures andmoderate agitation. Selective conditions also produceconsiderable amounts of trans acids, thus raising themelting point and increasing functionality. Since the early1990s, trans fatty acids have been implicated as cholesterolelevating agents and as risk factors in coronary heart dis-ease [4]. These concerns have prompted changes in theNutrition Education Act of 1990 such that trans fatty acidsmust be listed on nutrition labels effective Jan. 1, 2006 [5].Consequently, there has been much effort on the part ofoil processors and the food industry to meet the labelingrequirements and reduce the trans fatty acid contents ofpackaged retail products [6]. The approaches taken to re-duce trans fats include chemical/enzymatic interesterifi-cation, fractionation, use of naturally stable oils low inlinolenic acid, blending of liquid oils with tropical fats and,to a lesser extent, modified hydrogenation technologies [7].This letter describes the use of soybean oil hydrogenated tolow iodine values (27–41) to formulate low trans spreadand shortening oils.A refined, bleached, deodorized soybean oil (ADMCorporation, Decatur, IL, USA) was used for the hydroge-nations and had the following composition by gas chro-matography: palmitic (10.4%), stearic (4.5%), oleic(22.4%), linoleic(54.1%) and linolenic (7.6%); calculatedIV = 133.0. A commercially available catalyst (Nysosel645) was obtained from Englehard Corporation (NowBASF Catalysts, LLC), Erie, PA. It is composed of nickeloxide, nickel and alumina (25–40%) suspended in hydro-genated vegetable oil (60–75%). A typical hydrogenationwas carried out on one liter of soybean oil in a two liter,stirred autoclave as described previously [8]. Reactionconditions were 175 C, 15 psi hydrogen pressure andmoderate agitation. Reaction progress was monitored byrefractive index taken at 70use of the name USDA implies no approval of the product to the C. Once a target RI wasreached, the bomb was purged with nitrogen and allowed tocool. The oil was then treated with 1.0 ml of an aqueous50 wt% citric acid solution and 1.0 g Tonsil bleaching earth(Sud-Chemie, Puebla, Mexico). The oil was then filteredthrough a pad of Celite. Fatty acid compositions weredetermined by gas chromatography as described previously[6]. Mettler drop melting point and solid fat content (nmr)were determined according to official AOCS methods [9].