Let’s first define expeller pressed canola oil, so you can decide if it’s right for your manufactured food product.
Expeller Pressed Canola Oil has two parts to it’s name:
[Expeller Pressed] and [Canola Oil]
The term expeller pressed refers to how the oil is made. The term canola refers to what kind of oil it is – in fact, canola is the type of plant that the oil is made from.
Expeller pressed oil is produced using a machine that’s fittingly known as an “expeller press”. It is a physical press that squeezes the oil out of the seeds of the canola plant. It uses physical pressure instead of solvent extraction, which is currently the industry standard for removing oil from seeds.
It is generally considered a healthier way to produce oils, similar to the “first cold press” extraction process used for Extra Virgin Olive Oil.
The oil yield from expeller pressing is less in comparison to solvent extraction. Therefore, oils produced using this process are typically more expensive than conventional oils.
Canola oil is oil that is produced from the seeds of the canola plant.
The canola plant is grown primarily in Canada and the west/mid-west of the US. It’s a tall, delicate plant with small yellow flowers. At the center of these flowers is a number of round, dark seeds. These seeds are where the oil is contained, and they are what’s harvested to produce canola oil.
There’s both GMO (also called conventional) and non-GMO versions of expeller pressed canola oil available on the market today.
The canola oil plant is a close relative of the rapeseed plant (Brassica napus L.). When first produced, canola oil originally came from a plant known as rapeseed . The plants now used to make canola oil are from a different variety, known as canola plants.
These canola plants are the result of the hybridization the rapeseed plant. Some varieties of canola are hybrid and some are open pollinated; both of these are the result of traditional breeding, not genetic engineering.
The primary difference between the original rapeseed plants and the new canola plants is the level of euric acid. Canola plants have much lower euric acid levels, and instead are comprised of healthy oleic acid and linoleic acid.
In fact, the name canola was actually derived from this fact. It’s an acronym, which stands for Canadian Oil Low Acid.
CAN = Canadian O = Oil L = Low A = Acid
Want to learn more about expeller pressed canola oil? Download the eBook below, Non-GMO Canola Oil - A Guide For Food Manufacturers.