Remember “olestra”? Or the brand name it came to be known by, Olean? Olestra was a fat substitute that the FDA eventually approved to put into food in the mid 1990s.
Researchers at Procter & Gamble had been looking for a use for olestra since they discovered it in a search for metabolizable fat alternatives for premature babies in the 1970s. Olestra was made by combining vegetable oils with sucrose and potassium soaps in a chemical reactor and then heating them to 300 degrees Fahrenheit until methanol was distilled from the reaction. The rest of the product would be washed with alcohol, then bleached and deodorized.
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