A lot of unfounded assertions concerning canola oil can be found on the Internet. To clarify, canola is a naturally edible oil and is not the same as rapeseed. Rather, it was selectively bred botanically from the rapeseed plant to have a low erucic acid content. The name “canola” is short for “canadian oil low acid.” It has a unique and different fatty acid profile: rapeseed is a polyunsaturate, and canola oil is a monounsaturate (as is olive oil.) It is considered one of the most heart-healthy oils, and there is ample nutritional research to back that assertion.
Although 80% of the canola oil crops in North America are genetically modified to tolerate herbicides, at Against The Grain, we use expeller-pressed, non-GMO canola oil. It is a significantly more costly ingredient, but it is the healthiest possible alternative. Expeller pressed means it is extracted from the seed by a mechanical press rather than using a chemical extraction process so it contains no chemical residues. It is kept at temperatures under 120 degrees F during the extraction.