Restaurant owners face a seemingly unending list of choices as they try to streamline their menus and outfit their restaurants with the best possible supplies and ingredients. One of the top ingredients that almost every restaurant owner has to have on hand is vegetable oil. This handy ingredient is used for everything from baking to deep frying, so choosing an oil that can be used across all applications can streamline your restaurant's kitchen. With that in mind, here are three reasons to choose soybean oil over other kinds of vegetable oil.
Generally Allergen-Free
Causing an allergic reaction is a nightmare in the restaurant industry, so choosing safe ingredients should be a priority. Many plants that are used to create vegetable oil are on the list of top allergens in the united states. This list includes peanuts, tree nuts, and soybeans. However, how these raw ingredients are processed determines if the oil will be safe for consumers. Highly refined oils, including soybean oil, don't contain allergy-causing proteins that would trigger reactions in people with allergies. So, as long as you purchase highly-refined soybean oil, the FDA doesn't even require that you disclose using it in your kitchen. So, just avoid using expeller-pressed or extruded soybean oil to avoid allergens, too.
High Smoke Point
In any busy restaurant kitchen, cooking quickly and efficiently is key. That means cooks will be heating cooking oil to high temperatures for frying and sauteeing. To ensure all of the food your cooks produce comes out tasting perfect, you need to choose an oil with a high smoke point. When a cooking oil reaches its smoke point, it begins to react with the oxygen in the air, causing the flavor of anything cooked in it to go off. Highly refined soybean oil has a smoke point of 453 degrees, making it a better choice than peanut oil, grapeseed oil, and canola oil for high-temperature uses. You can safely use soybean oil in deep fryers, skillets, and hot ovens without developing bitter flavors.
Neutral Flavor
Although some oils, like extra virgin olive oil, are prized for their flavor profiles, most of the time, cooks turn to neutral oils. Neutral oils don't impart a noticeable flavor to food, so they allow the rest of the ingredients to shine. Unless you want a flavorful oil to use in salad dressings, you almost certainly want a neutral oil. Soybean oil that is highly refined has almost no flavor, so your restaurant staff can use it in a wide variety of applications without changing the flavor of your customers' favorite dishes.
To learn more, contact a soybean oil distributor in your area.
