Canola Oil vs. Vegetable Oil

The processing of vegetable oils began thousands of years ago, with the help of all the food supplies they had on hand to produce cooking oils. It all began when people learned to use fire and a makeshift oven to heat, oily plant products until the plant exuded oil that could then be extracted.

The sources of olive oil, coconut oil, and groundnut oil are obvious. This is not necessarily the case for plant oils and canola. Even if you use these cooking products every day, you might have questions about them, for example, which vegetables are used in the production of vegetable oil? And what exactly is a canola? To make things more disconcerting, both oils are similar in taste and color. Although they may be used interchangeably in recipes, canola oil and vegetable oil are not the same thing. The majority of kitchen pantries are stocked with both canola and vegetable oils. Both are usually cheaper and ideal for cooking and cooking due to their neutral taste and high smoke point.

Canola oil has a 400°F smoke point, and vegetable oil (when made of corn or soy) can reach 450°F. This means that you can use vegetable and canola oil for just about anything in the kitchen like deep-frying, searing, sautéing, frying, and more.

Canola oil is derived from the rapeseed plant. Rapeseed is naturally rich in potentially toxic compounds such as erucic acid, which previously made it dangerous to consume. In the 1970's, Canadian scientists crossed a version of the crop to reduce the amount of erucic acid. That strain was called canola, which is a coat from Canada, oil and acid. Canola oil has a high smokiness, neutral flavor and a high content of omega-3 and omega-6 fatty acids. A low-cost, versatile alternative to other cooking oils, the product has quickly become a staple food.

Any oil from seeds or other portions of fruit is a vegetable oil. That means canola oil is technically vegetable oil, but the vegetable oil bottles that are labelled at the grocery store don't have rapeseed as the main ingredient. Commercial vegetable oil is produced from a mixture of different oils, such as corn, sunflower, safflower and soy oil. It tends to have a higher proportion of saturated fat than canola oil, but because the ingredients used to make vegetable oil vary from brand to brand, their nutritional content varies as well.

Like canola oil, vegetable oil has a neutral taste and a high smokiness point, making it a good choice to fry and saute. It would be difficult to distinguish between the two products if you trade them for each other, but if you want a healthier alternative, canola oil is your best choice.

Whatever oil you use, you must store your bottles properly. If possible, store the oil somewhere dark and cool. If you don't regularly use a lot of vegetable oil or canola, purchase smaller bottles so that nothing is wasted. Once stored too long, the oil may oxidize and become rancid, so if your oil smells bad, don't use it.

When you replace rapeseed/canola oil, your best bet will be another neutral oil with a comparatively high smoke point. These include safflower oil, light/refined olive oil, soybean oil, peanut oil, corn oil, sunflower oil, vegetable oil, and grapeseed oil. Of course, if you don't need a neutral oil for your dish, extra virgin olive oil or avocado oil may be an appropriate replacement.

Neutral oils are generally refined oils that have been further treated such as bleaching and deodorization, resulting in a more neutral taste. Non-refined oils, such as extra virgin olive oil or coconut oil, tend to taste closer to the plant from which they originate. Neutral oils are ideal for cooking, frying or anytime you don't want to distract the flavors of the dish.