Is All Expeller Pressed Canola Oil Non-GMO And Vice Versa?

Posted by Hannah Broaddus

Is all expeller pressed canola oil available automatically non-GMO? Is all non-GMO canola oil automatically expeller pressed?

Much of the Non-GMO Canola Oil that you’ll find nowadays is in fact expeller pressed, so it makes sense that the opposite, that expeller pressed canola oil would automatically be non-gmo… Right? Not so fast.

These are interesting questions that I had to answer recently, and I thought it was worth clarifying for all.

Expeller Pressed Canola Oil

 

Expeller Pressed vs Non-GMO

These two terms — Expeller Pressed and Non-GMO — are actually completely independent of each other, but can get confused because of how often they are used together in today’s natural oil descriptions.

 

Expeller Pressed

Expeller Pressed OilThe term expeller pressed refers to how the oil is taken out of the seeds. It is a natural extraction process that most simply explained, means that the oil has been squeezed out of the seed, instead of removed using chemical extraction like solvents.

This process uses physical pressure in a machine often referred to as an “expeller press”. This is in comparison to other oils that use solvent extraction (where a chemical like hexane is added which draws the oil out of the seed and then the chemical is removed).

Particular mills are set up with expeller pressing processes, vs. other mills that are solvent expelling mills. Many of these expeller mills have worked over the last few years to get Non-GMO Project Verified, and start dealing with more non-GMO products. Right now, some expeller pressing mills only do conventional oils, some do only non-GMO oils and some do both.

 

Non-GMO

Non-GMO Project Verified

The term non-GMO refers to the type of seed that the oil is coming from. Essentially, a seed that is non-GMO has not been produced using genetic modification.

Almost all of the non-GMO canola oil available on the market is expeller pressed. Interestingly enough though, if you look for Non-GMO Soybean Oil, much of it is actually solvent expelled, showing how these two descriptors may be found together… but not always.

 

Non-GMO Canola Oil = Expeller Pressed (Usually)

Non-GMO Expeller Pressed Canola OilMost of the Non-GMO Canola Oil on today’s market is expeller pressed. This is because if consumers are demanding a non-GMO product, chances are that they’d also like it to be expeller pressed.

As supply has developed for this product, almost everything available on the market happens to be both non-GMO and expeller pressed — but technically, it doesn’t have to be.

As demand continues to grow in the future, keep checking both of these claims and don’t make assumptions that non-GMO canola oil will always and forever be only expeller pressed.

 

Expeller Pressed Canola Oil ≠ Non-GMO

Canola Oil 1 Gallon Jug Expeller PressedThere are expeller pressing mills that are producing both non-GMO and conventional canola oil. Therefore, you can find expeller pressed canola oil that is made from the standard, cheaper GMO seed.

However, it’s becoming more and more rare, so some suppliers don’t stock this item unless it’s brought in custom for you. But it does exist if you need it!

Therefore, if you see expeller pressed canola oil, don’t make the assumption that it’s automatically non-GMO. It really could be either.

Topics: Canola Oil

 

 

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