Canola Oil

Canola is a cultivar of rapeseed bred to be low in erucic acid. As a term canola may refer to both an edible oil (also known as canola oil) produced from the seed of any of several varieties of the Brassicaceae family of plants, and to those plants, namely a cultivar of Brassica napus L., Brassica rapa subsp. oleifera, syn. B. campestris L. or Brassica juncea. To be called canola, the oil must contain less than 2% erucic acid and the meal must contain less than 30 micromoles of aliphatic glucosinolates per gram.

Consumption of the oil is common and is claimed not only to be completely safe for human and animal consumption, but also to be among the healthiest of plant-derived oils, having a relatively low amount of saturated fat and a high content of polyunsaturated fats. It is also used as a source of biodiesel.