Pecan oil could be marketed competitively with olive oil, but canola oil is lower in price. Pecan oil is now consumed as a part of the nut and it is delicious. In the future it could be marketed as a salad oil because the pecan flavor in the oil could make it more popular than less flavorable oils. A long term objective would be to produce a cooking oil for food processors. Improper drying can lead to darker seed coats and a considerable increase in free fatty acids, both of which are characteristics of deteriorating quality.
Pecans can become an important health food becasue of their high level of monounsaturated fats.
Dietary research with pecans needs to be conducted to confirm their value in lowering LDL content while maintaining HDL content of the blood plasma. Clinical work is now underway by Scott Grundy of the Southwest Texas Medical Center in Dallas, using high quality pecans from Texas. It is hopefully anticipated that the same positive results can be found with pecans as with high-oleic safflower becasue the same monounsaturated fatty acid can be found in both .