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This paper attempts to present a full picture of current situation and future trends of Chinese oil crop production. The total oil crop production remained broadly constant during 2011–2014. The top three oil crops are soybean, peanut and rapeseed, together accounting for more than 70% of total oil crop production. The area under cultivation and the production of peanuts will keep steadily increasing because most Chinese like its pleasant roasted flavor. Because of their high content in polyunsaturated fatty acids and the natural minor functional components in their oils, more attention is being paid to sunflower seed and rice bran. The diminishing availability of arable land and concern over the security of edible oil supplies is driving both a change in cultivation structure of crops and improvements in the efficiency of oilseed production in China.

Publisher Summary This chapter provides an overview of trans fats replacement solutions in China. Consumption of trans fats has adverse effects on health. This is now common sense among the public in China after two years of discussion, particularly in the public media. As a result, the governments push the regulatory discussion and implementations forward. The Trans Fatty Acid (TFA) contents in foods before and after this discussion show significantly different levels. The level of TFA content in foods now is very low (2% based on fat) with only a few exceptions, such as fats in formulated milk drinks, certain confectionary products, and so forth. TFAs are mainly produced from partial hydrogenation. Thus, the amount of partially hydrogenated fats in the oils and fats industry has been reduced significantly because the need from the food industry has been quickly reduced. For this reason, the use of palm-based fat materials has replaced partially hydrogenated fats in most shortening and margarine recipes. This replacement occurred during the 2011–2013 period in the oils and fats industry. The change has left a gap for the oils and fats industry to find solutions for the food industry because replacement brings technical challenges. From public and regulatory aspects, the term hydrogenation has been blackened. The use of full hydrogenation to produce needed hard fats is also limited because the term of hydrogenation has to be labeled. The challenges raised by the change will stay for some years more before all the necessary solutions are there for the food industry.