When it comes to cooking oils, most of us can probably guess where they’re from. Coconut oil comes from coconuts, peanut oil and sunflower oils are from peanuts and sunflower seeds respectively, and of course, olive oil is from olives.
But where do canola and vegetable oils from? And moreover, what are the differences between them? Well, to complicate things, both oils are someone similar in both taste and color – but they’re not the same thing.
As Allrecipes reports, canola oil is derived from the rapeseed plant. Rapeseed is a plant that was unsafe to consume for the longest time as it’s naturally high in certain toxic compounds such as erucic acid.
It wasn’t until the 1970s that scientists in Canada were able to make it suitable for consumption by crossbreeding a version of the plant that had lower amounts of erucic acid. This particular strain was called canola – which was essentially a portmanteau of the words Canada, oil, and low acid.
The properties of canola are that it has a high smoke point, neutral flavor, and high amounts of both omega-3 and omega-6 fatty acids. It is a cheaper and versatile cooking oil alternative, and that has made it quite popular as a pantry item.
As for what makes vegetable oil, it’s basically just that. Any oil which coems from seeds to other parts of a fruit or veggie is essentially called vegetable oil. That means that canola oil is technically vegetable oil.
However, the difference lies in that bottles that are labeled as “vegetable oil” in the stores don’t have rapeseed as their main ingredient. Commercial vegetable oil comes from a blend of a variety of oils such as corn, sunflower, safflower, and soybean oil. Vegetable oil will often have a higher proportion of saturated fat than canola oil. But, because the ingredients that go into vegetable oil vary according to brands, the nutritional value will also vary depending on the brand.
Similar to canola oil, vegetable oil also has a neutral taste as well as a high smoke point meaning that it is great for frying or sautéing. It would be difficult to tell the difference between the two if you were to switch one – however – if you want a healthier choice then canola is the way to go.