Canola

Canola is one of two cultivars of rapeseed or Brassica campestris Brassica napus L. and B. campestris L. . 1 Their seeds are used to produce edible oil that is fit for human consumption because it has lower levels of erucic acid than traditional rapeseed oils and to produce livestock feed because it has reduced levels of the toxic glucosinolates. 2 Canola was originally naturally bred from rapeseed in Canada by Keith Downey and Baldur R. Stefansson in the early 1970s, 3 4 but it has a very different nutritional profile in addition to much less erucic acid. 5 The name "canola" was derived from "Canadian oil, low acid" in 1978. 6 7 A product known as LEAR for low erucic acid rapeseed derived from cross-breeding of multiple lines of Brassica juncea is also referred to as canola oil and is considered safe for consumption.

Canola oil is made at a processing facility by crushing the rapeseed. Approximately 42 of a seed is oil. What remains is rapeseed meal, a high quality animal feed. 50 pounds of rapeseed makes approximately 10 litres of canola oil.

Canola is a key ingredient in many of the foods we eat. Its reputation as a healthy oil has created high demand in markets around the world. Canola oil has many non-food uses, and often replaces non-renewable resources in products including candles, lipsticks, newspaper inks, industrial lubricants and biofuels.

Once considered a specialty crop in Canada, canola has become a major North American cash crop. Canada and the United States produce between 7 and 10 million tonnes of canola seed per year. Annual Canadian exports total 3 to 4 million tonnes of the seed, 800,000 tonnes of canola oil and 1 million tonnes of canola meal. The United States is a net consumer of canola oil. The major customers of canola seed are Japan, Mexico, China and Pakistan, while the bulk of canola oil and meal goes to the United States, with smaller amounts shipped to Mexico, China, and Europe. World production of rapeseed oil in the 2002 2003 season was about 14 million metric tons.

Canola was developed through conventional plant breeding from rapeseed, an oilseed plant already used in ancient civilization. The word "rape" in rapeseed comes from the Latin word "rapum," meaning turnip. Turnip, rutabaga, cabbage, Brussels sprouts, mustard and many other vegetables are related to the two canola varieties commonly grown, which are cultivars of Brassica napus and Brassica rapa. The negative associations due to the homophone "rape" resulted in creation of the more marketing-friendly name "Canola". The change in name also serves to distinguish it from regular rapeseed oil, which has much higher erucic acid content.

Hundreds of years ago, Asians and Europeans used rapeseed oil in lamps. The Chinese and Indians used a form of canola oil that was unrefined natural . 10 As time progressed, people employed it as a cooking oil and added it to foods. Its use was limited until the development of steam power, when machinists found rapeseed oil clung to water- or steam-washed metal surfaces better than other lubricants. World War II saw high demand for the oil as a lubricant for the rapidly increasing number of steam engines in naval and merchant ships. When the war blocked European and Asian sources of rapeseed oil, a critical shortage developed and Canada began to expand its limited rapeseed production.