Talk:Canola

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Contents

[edit] Early comments on the article

In agriculture, Canola is also the name given to the cooking oil pressed from the seeds of the rape plant (Brassica napus), a member of the mustard family. Rape-seed oil is sometimes called "Canadian oil," whence the name "Canola" derives. Known in Britain as oilseed rape.

The world wide traditional name is rape plant. Canola is a canadian name only. It was created in 1974 (or similar time), to differenciate it from oil of seedrape, some of which were proper for human use and some were not (low content in erucic acid). that is a new term. Besides, canola does not only correspond to Brassica napus, but also to Brassica campestris (which is slightly different from rape plant though of the same family).

Before being an oil, it is first a plant. And the use of canola is certainly not only as oil, but also as animal feed, or biofuel

Canola is not the Canadian name only. It is also the name in the U.S.A. Rmhermen 17:26 Apr 30, 2003 (UTC)

If you say so. However, rape and canola are quite different things.

I removed unedible, because I think it is too strong a term. Rape oil was used by poor people who were not rich enough to afford olive oil or butter in european countries. It was also used quite a bit during WWII. Nobody died from eating it. However, there is quite strong conviction it is dangerous, in particular for the heart muscle over time. Still, it is edible. Some even question nowadays the fact it is hurting the heart.

The strongest point imho, is that thanks to some (or one ?) canadian wild variety (with low erucic content), it was made possible to create a very good product (in particular after glucosinolates content was also lowered). If the diversity of rape varieties had been lost, this may not have happened.

Actually the Canola Council site sas that it was bred thru chemical and radiation induced mutagenic cross-breeding. Nothing about natural diversity. Rmhermen 18:27 Apr 30, 2003 (UTC)

that's very interesting as it is not at all what I learned about it.

I looked around a bit, and found a couple of links, among which this. Does not mention chemical and radiation use for mutagenic induction. I am interested by any link.

(this said, the techniques you mention are only accelerators of natural selection, there is nothing artificial here)

The website is [1] which is listed in the article. I do not agree that the above techniques are merely accelrators of natural selection. They are not trans-species GM but they only accelerate some of the change processes of natural selection and not others. Rmhermen 19:27 Apr 30, 2003 (UTC)

hum, I would not specifically cite this web site as a scientific reference of the means used to breed the erucic free canola...but well...They probably used some colchicin as a mutagen. Notice that they said This is the same breeding process as the selection of naturally occurring mutations which is a comment I very much agree with. But...right...that is perhaps a POV to refer to these processes as "non artificial" :-). These are naturally occuring mutations, not foreign genes inserted to create the metabolic change. So, I will stand on my initial opinion. I think it is important the notions of traditionnal biotech be not confused with modern biotech. Anyway, aside from the canola topic, if you know agri and gmo topic, I would be happy if you could edit and add to my pov on genetically modified food.

Canola is the least fatty oil?? I'm not sure what that is supposed to mean but 100g of canola contains 100g of fat - check this out. I know it isn't the best link but I have confirmed it on the USDA Nutrient Database here. It may have a low level of saturated fatty acids but apart from traces of tocopherol, it's essentially 100% pure fatty goodness.

I don't think that canola oil is the "least fatty", to the contrary, it is clearly quite "fatty". I do think that canola is claimed to be a healthy oil because of the fatty acid profile it has, (high in omega 3 fatty acid, when compared to other common oils) in combination with a low level of saturated fat and no trans fat, as shown by your link.

-- I always assumed that the name "canola" was meant to distance the product in North America from its unfortunate international name. "Rape Oil" sounds to many Americans like something sold in small bottles at tasteless adult novelty stores... -- Bouncey 19:05, 2005 Jun 2 (UTC)


"In some areas, notably the United States, the cultivar name 'Canola' is (incorrectly) applied to all rapeseed plants, including the many other cultivars."

As far as I understand, Canola in the U.S. refers exclusively to the low erucic cultivars. Do you have a source for this? Dforest 16:42, 14 July 2005 (UTC)

I agree. That statement should be deleted, unless it can be backed by a showing of significant use, and that is unlikely. I know people who grew rapeseed when Canola was not the overwhelmingly predominant rapeseed grown in the United States. Gene Nygaard 17:13, 14 July 2005 (UTC)
USDA:[2]
" Brassica napus Linnaeus; known as rapeseed, rape, oilseed rape, and in some cultivars, Canola; is a mustard crop grown primarily for its seed which yields about forty percent oil and a high-protein animal feed."
Gene Nygaard 17:19, 14 July 2005 (UTC)
See also the USDA loan rates ([www.fsa.usda.gov/dafp/psd/2005CanCrambeFlaxRapeLR.pdf pdf file]), which provide a higher loan rate for Canola than for other rapeseed. Clearly they are distinguished in the United States. I'm removing that statement. Gene Nygaard 17:24, 14 July 2005 (UTC)

[edit] Canola genetically modified?

It seems that the issue of whether canola is a sort of genetically modified plant is a controversial one. According to the Canola Council "Canola was developed using traditional plant breeding techniques, some of which involve irradiating seeds. In canola and other oilseeds such as soybeans and flax, plant scientists sometimes use low levels of irradiation to cause mutagenesis."

Landroo 10:21, 9 June 2006 (UTC) When Rapeseed became Canola, it was accomplished using traditional plant breeding techniques. The distinguishing features between Rapeseed and Canola were the removal of erucic acid and glucosinolates from the oil, which made it more palatible and eleviated health concerns about those two compounds. Since that time of course, there has been genetic modification of some varieties, chiefly for pest control, but certainly not all. It should be noted that the canola oil itself contains no DNA, therefore genetically-modified canola oil is chemically indistinguishable from non-GMO canola oil.


So, basically, exposure to radiation was used to accelerate the process of mutation selection that traditional plant breeding has always relied on. Note the following: 1.) This process is not the same as 'genetic engineering' as the term is popularly understood today 2.) The Wikipedia definition for 'genetically modified organism' includes irradiated wheat varieties in its definition, so probably canola fits, too. 3.) The process used to create Canola is not 'natural selection'; in fact, no selective breeding is natural selection.

I think that the best way to present the process that was used to make canola is as a bridge between modern genetic engineering techniques (altering genetic information relatively directly), and traditional plant breeding methods (waiting for natural mutations). I think that this information belongs in the canola article, since it is very significant to the history of the crop. Some information I don't have is the dates during which the experimentation went on, and the novelty of the process at the time. I think that canola was a pioneer in the area of genetic modification through irradiation, but I'll have to keep looking for information about that.

Alkali Jack

The modern canola plant was developed in Winnipeg Manitoba during the 1970s. It started with scientists screening different canola plants for those which showed low erucic acid and low glucosinolates. Thus, another name for Canola is Double-Low Rapeseed. The technique used is known as the half seed technique. Basically it involves cutting a seed in half, taking one half and running it through a GC, and if the acid and glucosinolate content is low, then planting the other half. By irradiating the plants, the researchers were able to speed up the natural cycle of mutation and evolution. Thus, this plant is not a GMO, since no new genes or DNA was added to the genome.

If you are interested in how Canola, rapeseed etc. fit into the Brassica family see the Triangle of U page. --Doucher 00:10, July 27, 2005 (UTC)

[edit] Acronym

This page says that Canola originally came from "Canadian oil low acid", as does the rapeseed page, but it's reported as a backronym on the canola page. It also mentions that in the UK canola oil is "still sold under the name of 'rapeseed oil'". Anyone know the credibility of that site? FireWorks 00:16, 18 December 2005 (UTC)

[edit] Canola oil poisonous

Do we need to have a discussion here about the edits claiming canola oil to be poisonous? I invite the anonymous person who has been making these edits to register for an account and discuss the matter openly, rather than just getting his posts reverted all of the time. He or she will probably want to find a more authoritative sources, to help back up such an extraordinary claim. (By, the way, what kind of degree is "N.D."? Some kind of nursing degree?) Joshuardavis 14:00, 7 March 2006 (UTC)

Actually, the idea that canola oil is poisonous is debunked at [3]. That treatment, which is arguably better than Wikipedia's, includes several important bits missing from most discussions: that the Wall Street Journal "article" was just a letter to the editor, and that canola oil smoke, not canola oil itself, causes lung cancer. (However, it does seem to smoke at lower temperatures than other oils.)
I've put this information here to assist other editors, in case the poison edits return. Of course, this page is not a venue for debating the issue, but rather for debating whether a NPOV treatment of the issue should appear in the article. We might consider this, since people who hear the poison idea might come to Wikipedia for more info. Joshuardavis 14:38, 7 March 2006 (UTC)

Rapeseed oil was widely consumed in Canada and other countries for decades and centuries before low-erussic acid varieties were developed and subsequently renamed "Canola." It was believed by some in the industry that the USDA exaggerated the health risks of rapeseed, blocking it's approval to help protect the powerful soybean oil industry in the US. When canola appeared (which is merely rapeseed with much lower levels of erussic acid and glucosinolate), it was only a matter of time before it was approved for human consumption because the health benefits as compared to other edible oils could no longer be denied.--Landroo 08:33, 10 February 2007 (UTC)

Poisonous? Perhaps. However, there are those of us who are allergic to it, and now that it's easily in the majority of processed foods, as well as in the vast majority of commercial kitchens, the simple act of eating has become a very risky adventure. Bandy 01:33, 8 March 2007 (UTC)

I have read most of the relevant papers in this area. There is some work that shows that erucic acid causes heard damage in animals. In India, this was met with some scepticism, as mustard oil has been used for millennia. So, Indian biochemists did some experiments which involved looking at the hearts of people with diets high in mustard oil, but found nothing significant. (A popular rendition of this is in "Lorenzo's Oil" where the father finds out that his son need an oil present in mustard seeds. The doctor refuses to go along, on the basis that mustard is high in erucic acid. The father responds that Indians have been using it for thousands of years, though the doctor has no interest in listening ... ) I know of nothing that indicates that cancer might be a problem. Therefore, I am changing "cancer" to "heart damage". I would add the references, but I am traveling and don't have my library with me. —Preceding unsigned comment added by 71.184.4.152 (talk) 23:45, 5 September 2007 (UTC)

Is this the reference you where thinking of, or do you know of others? As Indians get wealthier ( or emigrate to developed countries) they can afford 'healthier' diets like 'vegetable gee' and paradoxical suffer more Coronary Heart Disease. [1] Sounds like experts have got things back to front. It is not any particular 'fat' but a complimentary ratio that is important. --Aspro 14:02, 6 September 2007 (UTC)

[edit] Canola Enhancements

It is true that Canola was originally created in Winnipeg, MB, using scientific techniques. However, since that time, Canola has progressed quite far and is now being modified using some new methods. In nature, plants will mutate at a very low frequency and this is called natural mutation. New Canola varieties are being created through mutagenesis, or accelerated natural mutation. Currently, techniques are being used to increase the frequency of these mutations such as UV and chemical treatments. I think that these new developments as well as the types of Canola that are resultant of these techniques deserve mention in the article. I am unsure of the scientific details surrounding the techniques, and am unaware of all the techniques that are used but the two mentioned above are currently in practice. Andrewcmore 00:54, 20 September 2006 (UTC)

[edit] Removed the worldview tag

I couldn't see what the {{worldview}} tag was supposed to indicate, so I removed it. Does anyone know why it was added? -- Jim Douglas (talk) (contribs) 22:55, 2 November 2006 (UTC)

[edit] Canola is not a cultivar

There is a huge misconception going on here and also on the rapeseed pages. Some of you are under the misaprehension that canola and rapeseed are two totally different things. They are not.

Canola designates rapeseed (or canola) and rapeseed oil (or canola oil) that meets the Canadian Canola Council targets for erucic acid and glucosinolates. The plant and its oil have always generally been known in North America as canola and not by the European name of oilseed rape, and so the two things became mixed up in the same nomenclature.

In Europe where canola is called oilseed rape or rapeseed, the new varieties (or cultivars if you prefer) became known as "double 0" or "00" (said as "double zero" or "double low")

Nearly all canola or rape grown worldwide is now low acid and glucosinolates, so although it is of interest to acknowledge the Canola Council's work and trademark, the world's canola or rapeseed is now generally all double 0.

I think the problem arose by the problem of understanding exactly what is meant by the word "cultivar" or "variety", as the articles on these subjects are not easy to fully understand.

All farm crops are patented "varieties", and farmers will strive every year to buy seed from the latest ones giving higher yields, oil contents etc. These varieties are bred by plant breeders from existing ones. For commercial canola, all available varieties are now double 0, and Europe is the same except that the crop there is known as oilseed rape.

There was never a time when a plant breeder bred two rapeseed varieties together and came up with "canola", a new low acid / glucosinolate variety. Rather the name "canola" was trademarked to give canola an edge on world markets as percieved from a North American viewpoint.

Wikipedia now has two pages, "canola" and "rapeseed", the one inhabited largely by North American writers, the other largely by Europeans, to whom the word "canola" is unfamiliar. The two should for accuracy's sake be combined as one.

http://research.bayer.com/edition_18/18_Canola_oil.pdfx http://www.hort.purdue.edu/newcrop/nexus/Brassica_rapeseed_nex.html http://www.hort.purdue.edu/newcrop/afcm/canola.html

Tomcrisp7 10:06, 15 November 2006 (UTC)

I hope someone else can follow up on this; I don't have a lot of time. For background, see Talk:Rapeseed, particularly this section:
I believe you are saying that something like the following: "Europeans understand rapeseed to mean modern 00 varieties only, and given this understanding, all rapeseed is canola." Can you explain this part of your argument once more? You seem to be redefining the subset (canola) as a synonym for all varieties of the crop (rapeseed). Given that non-canola rapeseed is still grown (google the term "non-canola rapeseed"), this is the part of your argument that I honestly don't understand.
For the original development of canola, see:
http://www.canola-council.org/ind_overview.html
Turning Rapeseed into Canola
The canola we know today was developed in the early 1970s using traditional plant breeding techniques; as a result of Canadian plant breeders’ efforts to remove the anti-nutritional components, erucic acid and glucosinolates from rapeseed so that it would be absolutely safe for human and animal consumption. The plant also produced seeds with a very low level of saturated fat, seven per cent or below.
This new oilseed was christened “Canola” and there is a strict internationally regulated definition of canola that differentiates it from rapeseed, based upon it having less than two per cent erucic acid and less than 30 umoles glucosinolates. Therefore, oilseed products that do not meet this standard cannot use the trademarked term, canola. High erucic acid rapeseed acreage, although still present in Canada, is now confined to production under contract for specific industrial uses.
http://northerncanola.com/canolainfo/history.asp
Canola is a genetic variation of rapeseed developed by Canadian plant breeders specifically for its nutritional qualities, particularly its low level of saturated fat. In 1956 the nutritional aspects of rapeseed oil were questioned, especially concerning the high eicosenoic and erucic fatty acid contents.
In the early 1960's, Canadian plant breeders isolated rapeseed plants with low eicosenoic and erucic acid contents. The Health and Welfare Department recommended conversion to the production of low erucic acid varieties of rapeseed. Industry responded with a voluntary agreement to limit erucic acid content to five percent in food products, effective December 1, 1973.
In 1974, Dr. Baldur Stefansson, a University of Manitoba plant breeder, developed the first 'double low' variety, which reduced both erucic, and glucosinolate levels. This Brassica napus variety, Tower, was the first variety to meet the specific quality requirements used to identify a greatly improved crop known as Canola.
http://www.mts.net/~agrifame/stefanss.html
http://www.canola-council.org/PDF/canola/english/originhistory.pdf
Note that Encarta also has two separate articles, one for the plant in general and another for canola. -- Jim Douglas (talk) (contribs) 15:54, 15 November 2006 (UTC)

Put simply, canola is the North American word for rapeseed. It might well be a trademark for low acid / glucosinolate oil but the two ideas are not differentiated among oilseed professionals.

You could take canola varieties to Europe and grow them there, where they would be called rape, albeit "double 0"; you could take "double 0" (99% + of seedstock) European rape to grow in Canada, where it would (and should) be called Canola ; you could take high erucic acid rape from Canada (which the Canadian farmer would regardless call "canola" in violation of the trademark) to Europe where it could only be grown in special contracts for high acid oil, but still be called rape ; you could take high acid rape from Europe to Canada where the oil could not be sold as Canola, but the grower would still refer to it (wrongly?) as Canola.

The problem is that the word Canola should mean rapeseed; the Canola Council trademark is confusing the issue - they should have named it "Supercanola", "lowcanola" or somesuch. I think they probably would if it had crossed their minds that the word canola is not used outside North America. On the other hand, that commercial edge...?

It is possible to find many websites with far more pragmatic definitions of Canola / rape than most of the ones you have bombarded me with, Jim. No one is threatening the Canola Council definition or any other item in your argument:-)Tomcrisp7 16:17, 15 November 2006 (UTC)

"Put simply, canola is the North American word for rapeseed."
I'm sorry, Tom, but put simply, you're wrong. Canola is rapeseed, but rapeseed is not necessarily canola. If "rapeseed" and "canola" were the same thing, then the phrase "non-canola rapeseed" would be nonsense. As just one example, read this entire page:
http://www.agry.purdue.edu/ext/canola/.
And as I mentioned above, Encarta also maintains two separate articles, "Rape (botany)" and "Canola". -- Jim Douglas (talk) (contribs) 22:47, 15 November 2006 (UTC)

Well' I've said all I can. Farmers and oilseed professionals in North America do not talk about "non-canola rapeseed". The idea is laughable. Ask any oilseed farmer, Jim. You're splitting hairs and creating a technical problem that simply doesn't exist in the real world.

I would never say that "double 0" rapeseed" and "rapeseed" were two different things. Milling wheat has different characteristics than feed wheat but the two things are still wheat.

The Canola Council trademarked the Canadian word for rapeseed. This doesn't mean one has to stop calling rapeseed canola, as canola is the word in common usage.

You're probably right about keeping both pages, as North Americans will look for "canola" and English People "rapeseed". Perhaps, according to your logic, we should have a third page, called "non-canola rapeseed" ?

I work as an agronomist in the north central USA, and spend a lot of my time on oilseeds. As more grist for the discussion mill, here is my personal impression of the consensus terminology among my colleagues: (1) "canola" refers to those rapeseed cultivars or lines that the meet relevant oil and meal quality standards; (2) "rapeseed" technically includes canola, but usually only comes up in conversation when rapeseed other than canola is being discussed; and (3) the trademark status of the word canola doesn't affect usage in speech or writing. --Belgrano 21:37, 15 March 2007 (UTC)


[edit] Varieties (or cultivars) of canola / oilseed rape

It struck me that some extra information should be available on this subject:

Rapeseed or canola is largely self-pollinating and so plant breeding in the classical sense was for many years less successful than selecting for modern varieties for (say) wheat.

Among traits aimed for in plant breeding are yield, content of exploitable substances e.g.oil %, levels of impurities e.g. erucic acid in rape, maturity speed (early harvest), resistance to diseases, even herbicide tolerance in GMO varieties, which is a simply plant breeding using a new tool).

As much as 30% yield benefit for example, is now obtainable from current varieties above the level of those existing in the 1970s.

In the 1990s a chemical sterilization method was developed which, when applied to rape plant breeding, meant that varieties used in breeding could be kept "female", and therefore all fertilizing pollen had to come from other varieties.

This was the start of hybrid canola / rape breeding, which led to the breakthrough variety "Synergy" in Europe in 1999, outyielding all other known varieties at the time.

Surprisingly, double 00, or trademark compatible canola, was bred earlier using prior classical plant breeding techniques.

Today in Europe, around 30% of varieties (of which there are around 45 available on the French accepted list) are hybrids, of which half again are composite hybrid varieties as opposed to restored hybrids. 7 new semi-dwarf restored hybrids are coming available, which have a greater standing power and therefore theoretically produce higher yields than others due to being able to absorb more nitrogen fertiliser. Seed rates are lower too, because of "hybrid vigour".

The most popular varieties are Pollen, Aviso, Grizzly and Expert, all capable of yielding up to 4 or 5 tonnes / hectare in intensive situations. All these varieties, without exception, are "double 0", compatible with the canola trademark. Anyone wishing to grow high erucic acid rape must find a specialist buyer with which to sign a contract for use of a specialist variety (ie not compatible with canola trademark).

I hope this is of some help.Tomcrisp7 14:16, 15 November 2006 (UTC)

[edit] Merger proposal

  • DO NOT MERGE Canola Oil is NOT rapeseed oil. According to the Canola Council on truth and myths about Canola, a link at the bottom of the rapeseed page, canola oil is NOT rapeseed oil. Martha Stewart discussed this confusion on her show. She came to the same conclusion. Rapeseed is similar to canola, but they are NOT the same thing. http://www.canola-council.org/cooking_myths.html
  • I disagree to a merger, I am all for the "unamercicanisation" of Wikipedia, but Canola is not just used in North America. I am a fourth generation Australian farmer and I've never once heard the it referred as rapeseed, I'm also concerned that merging these two articles would make it too long, and would lead to having a lot of valuable information cut from the article. My resolution would be to make a rapeseed a disambiguation and give the currant rapeseed a different title. Bnsbeaver 02:12, 18 December 2006 (UTC)
  • Rapeseed was used in Australia - for a little while in the 1980's. it isn't very PC so it's hard to market.... so the Canola Marketing Board formed and while few people had taken up Rapeseed cropping, Canola is quite a popular crop in Australia. I would support a merger with a redirect from one, to the chosen article.Garrie 05:59, 9 January 2007 (UTC)
  • Rapeseed should be mered with conola.
  • Merge! As stated above, mention of Canola and Rapeseed could be formed into one cohesive article with explanations of the differnces in names as Aspro suggested and it would not be too long. I've never heard of Rapeseed but that doesn't dismiss it as a viable subject. With such a difference of opinion it makes sense for a merge so that one who searches for Canola will find its association with Rapeseed or vice-versa. Noles1984 20:09, 19 January 2007 (UTC)
  • Merge seems justified. MGTom 20:47, 28 January 2007 (UTC)
  • Merge. David.Throop 15:41, 29 January 2007 (UTC)
  • Disagree, per extensive discussion on this page and on Talk:Rapeseed#Canola. Encarta also has two separate articles, one for the plant in general and another for canola.-- Jim Douglas (talk) (contribs) 16:10, 29 January 2007 (UTC)
Comment: Your missing the point. As 'canola' is a north American standard, it will invite a lot of repetitious articles as other countries add their equivalent descriptions of LEAR – not to mention the HEAR types. However, by merging, it then become practical to create a table showing the diff/similarities at a glance. Why not create an article that encarter can only hope to emulate instead of suggesting WP comes down to encarter's level? If encarter was good enough there would be no need for WP huh! --Aspro 18:10, 29 January 2007 (UTC)
  • Merge I think these contributions back up the comments I made previously above. The point of view that Jim Douglas exposes seems rather proprietal, in a North American sense. Everyone note that the introductory line to the article says "canola is a trademarked cultivar...". This is nothing short of a lie.Tomcrisp7 00:39, 24 February 2007 (UTC)
  • Merge trueblood 21:06, 26 February 2007 (UTC)
  • Merge. There are important differences between the terms canola and rapeseed, but the overlap between the two concepts is overwhelming. One page -- with appropriate and succinct explanation of the differences right at the top -- would be much more effective than two. --Belgrano 14:23, 16 March 2007 (UTC)
  • Merge 212.120.237.72 18:52, 27 March 2007 (UTC)

10 out of 13 makes a consensus to merge. Tom 12:32, 21 October 2007 (UTC)

[edit] Canola is poison

I'm distressed by the amount of material in this article from the Mary Enig / Sally Fallon / Joseph Mercola echo chamber. One of her principle claims is that due to the processing involved, canola contains up to 4.5% trans-fat. This is referenced to a single paper, which unfortunately I can't read for less than $40.

http://www.blackwell-synergy.com/doi/abs/10.1111/j.1745-4522.1994.tb00244.x?journalCode=jfl

Without reading the paper, it is impossible to know how many samples showed trans-fat at this level, how the samples were obtained, what processing steps were used, and whether the processing steps in 1994 have any relationship to the processing steps now in use more than twenty years later.

Unfortunately, neither was I able to find a paper that directly states the levels of trans-fat in processed canola oils, as opposed to the original seed oil composition. The alarming similarity among all these articles is their uniform negativity, they seem to be differentiated primarily on whether they grind hardest on the axe of "poison" or "industrial" or "cancer" or "heart disease".

The claims and scare-words fly thick and fast in these screed-like articles, and I would want to check any references given thoroughly before believing any of it.

Does anyone have good information on the change (if any) in the nature of canola oil from the seed oil stage to the processed oil available to consumers? MaxEnt 03:19, 24 May 2007 (UTC)

I reworked it a bit and removed a misleading claim about "trans-fat free versions of canola have been developed", since the seed oil has no trans-fat to begin with. The contributor was probably thinking about high stability Canola with reduced TFA levels to survive better in the fast-food industry. I would have prefered to delete the whole Enig paragraph, but I'm a confirmed non-deletist. MaxEnt 04:04, 24 May 2007 (UTC)
In answer to some of the above: Your asking how long is a piece of string?
Most oils and fats are naturally unstable; look at an oil painting. Their oils polymerize by parts of the molecules cross linking with others. The speed depends on heat and radiation (e.g.., short wave length light) light. Which is 'just part of why' fresh pressed oil tastes a lot better than supermarket bought. The older and more proceed it is, the more 'trans' (these are double carbon bonds) that the oil will have.
Your last entry on this page is confused.
It is low EFA w3 ( notice its 'E' FA not TFA as you had it ) verities that have been developed which are more stable and therefore have a longer shelf life and are less likely to form 'trans configurations' between molecules.The paragraph should have been better phrased and corrected but not deleted.
The reason why this article it is so poorly referenced and to a few sources is that there are only a few people (like Mercola) answering the sales and marketing information from the industry. Some editors find information from these protesters and the food industry PR easier to source, rather than dig out there own references, which of course requires them to have more knowledge and understanding than they probable have, which is why mistakes and falsehoods are creeping in by people who don't fully understand trying to improve the article. The result takes a long time to revert and correct, so food chemists just don't bother, but prefer to concern themselves with articles about their favorite hobbies and things.--Aspro 08:12, 24 May 2007 (UTC)


I can't help but notice the claim here that fast-food manufacturers switched to more stable varieties of canola oil in order to reduce the trans-fat content of their foods. However, this is not an entirely correct statement. What they actually did was switch to canola oil from other types of oil (notably, the infamous mix known simply as "vegetable oil") in order to reduce the trans-fat content of their foods. They did not typically make use of canola oil beforehand. If they had problems with the canola oil being unstable and forming trans-fat (this would be mainly from unsaturated fats as cis-fats turned into trans-fats, not from saturated fats) during its time on the shelf, this was a later problem than the major change people mainly think of when they talk about fast-food manufacturers reducing the trans-fat content of their foods (by using canola oil.) I really would like to see the research on more stable varieties of canola oil being developed though, as this seems to be a later issue that I had never heard of before. Works of Sweat (talk) 20:47, 20 April 2008 (UTC)

I have deleted "Claims of safety are a bit questionable ... three weeks" added by 121.79.31.237 on 29 January 2008. I was drawn to look more closely at the sentence because it was poorly written, but am deleting it altogether because the reference cited concerned claimed health benefits, not product safety. Evaluist (talk) 00:21, 22 May 2008 (UTC)

[edit] Health Effects

I am planning to remove the following from the Health Effects section:

In [[Nexus Magazine]], Volume 9, Number 5 (Aug–Sept 2002), contrarian
<ref>http://www.thaifoodandtravel.com/features/cocgood.html</ref> dietitians Sally Fallon and Mary G.
 Enig, published an article, called "The Great Con-ola", questioning the industry's marketing claims, stating 
that Canola oil 'has a number of undesirable health effects when used as the main source of dietary fats'. 
 Their article cites independent studies done from the late 1970s to 1990s, which show animals fed on a pure 
Canola oil-based diet suffer from [[vitamin E deficiency]], a decrease in blood [[platelet]] count, an increase 
in platelet size, and shortened [[life-span]]s.  

The authors state "Furthermore, it seems to retard growth, which is why the FDA does not allow the use of 
canola oil in infant formula" with terse citation to ''Federal Register 1985''.  However, an article from The 
Journal of Nutrition explains this same citation differently: "The use of canola oil in infant formulas is not
 permitted because infants fed formula might consume higher amounts of 22:1(n-9) than would be provided in 
usual mixed diets and because of the lack of data about infants fed diets containing canola 
oil."<ref>http://jn.nutrition.org/cgi/content/full/129/7/1261</ref> The "22:1(n-9)" mentioned by the FDA here 
is another name for euric acid. So although levels below the 2 percent limit set by the USDA in Canola are 
permitted in the diet of adults the FDA does not permit these amounts in an infants diet.

The authors state that omega-3s in canola oil are transformed into [[trans fat]]s during the [[deodorisation]] 
process, citing a single [[University of Florida]] study published in 1994 which found [[trans fat]] content to 
be as high as 4.6% in a sample of soy and canola oils purchased in the U.S. <ref>http://www.blackwell-
synergy.com/doi/abs/10.1111/j.1745-4522.1994.tb00244.x?journalCode=jfl</ref>   
<!-- even the abstract makes it clear that it wasn't '''most''' omega-3s, but 37% in the worst case -->

The citations are very confusing and do not apparently support the article text. The article being referred to isn't linked. The claims hover to and from and I have no idea if Fallon and Enig are or are not a reliable source (per WP:RS and thus whether their arguments justify this much article space - if they are contrarian dietitions - I think we need to work out how we meet the Wikipedia:Neutral point of view policy - certainly WP:UNDUE should be considered - ie an important qualification: Articles that compare views should not give minority views as much or as detailed a description as more popular views, and may not include tiny-minority views at all..

Please discuss before reinserting the text into the article. --Golden Wattle talk 00:03, 20 October 2007 (UTC)

Further, I suspect that Nexus (magazine) would not meet WP:RS (for example, the publisher is one of the Apollo Moon landing hoax accusers - at the very least it is not a magazine concerened with health, science or food technology)) - there are plenty of sources that would provide information on Canola's health benefits and other issues covered by science and food technology. If the claims are spurious, to meet Wikipedia standards the preference is for scholarly sources.--Golden Wattle talk 00:18, 20 October 2007 (UTC)

[edit] Alpha-linolenate

Alpha-linolenate cite[4]. SaltyBoatr (talk) 14:56, 12 April 2008 (UTC)