Since canola oil used to be called rapeseed oil (and can you blame the name change?) I assumed they’re one and the same. But a reader pointed out to me they’re not. So of course, I had to check it out further.

On the surface, the two are the same – they’re both oilseed crops in the mustard family.

In the beginning, there was just rapeseed oil, a neutrally flavored oil with a light texture. In 1956, the FDA deemed rapeseed oil unfit for human consumption for two reasons:

Glucosinolates made the oil super bitter-tasting. More importantly, there were high levels of erucic acid, a fatty acid believed to be toxic when ingested in large amounts. Hence, canola oil was created.

In the 1970s, farmers grew strains of rapeseed with significantly lower amounts of erucic acid through crossbreeding. Think less than 2% instead of 45%. For the most part, this development occurred in Canada, which is where the name canola oil comes from – “canola” means to connote “Canadian oil, low acid.”

Within the past couple years, cold-pressed rapeseed oil has become all the rage in Britain. Although animal studies have found erucic acid to be unsafe, some maintain it’s just fine for humans.

To recap: Canola oil is rapeseed oil that has been bred to significantly reduce the undesirable elements, namely, the bitterness and high erucic levels.

Check out the difference between olive oil and vegetable oil here.