Many cookbooks and chefs recommend Canola oil as the best choice for frying, salad dressings, and chiffon cakes, and they tout its many health benefits. I have often wondered why I did not like the taste of Canola oil and switched to sunflower oil sometime ago. Actually MOMs has a really nice sunflower oil that I think is cold pressed and partially refined. I could use it two times for deep frying. There are so many conflicting articles about these different oils that I thought I would share some facts I uncovered.
Canola oil is from a hybrid that was developed from the rapeseed plant and another cultivar by the
For a couple of decades, this hybrid was grown successfully across the USA, Australia and India without being genetically modified. That changed in 1995 when Monsanto modified it to be “Round Up Ready” – in other words, it could withstand repeated spraying of glyphosate, a heinously harmful chemical that many in scientific and medical fields would like to see banned. Today most of the “Canola” rapeseed grown in the US and Canada is genetically modified. In Europe, and I believe also in the United Kingdom, GMO Canola is not allowed as a crop. Globally, GMO rapeseed represents less than a third of the crops grown. One of the concerns of agricultural scientists is that now herbicide resistant “transgenes” from GMO rapeseed are present in wild or natural rapeseed. Organic farmers can lose their certification if their crops show a random GMO presence.
To produce the oil we commonly see in our grocery stores and used by most food service facilities, the health aspects get a bit complicated. In order to get the oil that you use for frying or salad dressings, it is bleached and deodorized (rapeseed has a high chlorophyll content, which gives it a grassy green color and mustardy odor). The petroleum-based chemical most often used for this beautification project is hexane, which is a neurotoxin to humans. It does not have to be listed on a food label in the US. The EU has switched to another safer solvent through the research done at the University of Turin in Italy and the University of Avignon in France. A tract published by the US National Library of Medicine in 2022 stated that although the toxicity of hexane has been known for years, “the real toxicity of this substance may be underestimated.” Another alarming fact is that studies of the safety and nutritional benefits of Canola oil are often conducted with cold-pressed canola oil and not what is normally bought by consumers and used in restaurants.
The best frying temperatures start at around 320F (first fry for frites) and then around 350-375F – I actually try to keep it around 360F. I was not always successful in using a bread cube for determining the right frying temperature, so I always, always use my Thermapen to maintain the proper temperature. There is such a narrow window between limp and greasy fried food and food that’s over browned and somewhat bitter. I found this table from Wikipedia to be very helpful in my newfound playground of frying oils.
Fat | Quality | Smoke point | |
---|---|---|---|
Almond oil | 221 °C | 430 °F] | |
Avocado oil | Refined | 271 °C | 520 °F |
Avocado oil | Unrefined | 250 °C | 482 °F |
Beef tallow | 250 °C | 480 °F | |
Butter | 150 °C | 302 °F] | |
Butter | Clarified | 250 °C | 482 °F |
Castor oil | Refined | 200 °C[ | 392 °F |
Coconut oil | Refined, dry | 204 °C | 400 °F |
Coconut oil | Unrefined, dry expeller pressed, virgin | 177 °C | 350 °F |
Corn oil | 230–238 °C | 446–460 °F | |
Corn oil | Unrefined | 178 °C | 352 °F |
Cottonseed oil | Refined, bleached, deodorized | 220–230 °C | 428–446 °F |
Flaxseed oil | Unrefined | 107 °C | 225 °F |
Grape seed oil | 216 °C | 421 °F | |
Lard | 190 °C | 374 °F] | |
Mustard oil | 250 °C | 480 °F | |
Olive oil | Refined | 199–243 °C | 390–470 °F |
Olive oil | Virgin | 210 °C | 410 °F |
Olive oil | Extra virgin, low acidity, high quality | 207 °C | 405 °F |
Olive oil | Extra virgin | 190 °C | 374 °F |
Palm oil | Fractionated | 235 °C | 455 °F |
Peanut oil | Refined | 232 °C | 450 °F |
Peanut oil | 227–229 °C | 441–445 °F | |
Peanut oil | Unrefined | 160 °C | 320 °F |
Pecan oil | 243 °C | 470 °F | |
Rapeseed oil (Canola) | 220–230 °C | 428–446 °F | |
Rapeseed oil (Canola) | Expeller press | 190–232 °C | 375–450 °F |
Rapeseed oil | Refined | 204 °C | 400 °F |
Rapeseed oil (Canola) | Unrefined | 107 °C | 225 °F |
Rice bran oil | Refined | 232 °C | 450 °F |
Safflower oil | Unrefined | 107 °C | 225 °F |
Safflower oil | Semirefined | 160 °C | 320 °F |
Safflower oil | Refined | 266 °C | 510 °F |
Sesame oil | Unrefined | 177 °C | 350 °F |
Sesame oil | Semirefined | 232 °C | 450 °F |
Soybean oil | 234 °C | 453 °F | |
Sunflower oil | Neutralized, dewaxed, bleached & deodorized | 252–254 °C] | 486–489 °F |
Sunflower oil | Semirefined | 232 °C | 450 °F |
Sunflower oil | 227 °C | 441 °F | |
Sunflower oil | Unrefined, first cold-pressed, raw | 107 °C] | 225 °F |
Sunflower oil, high oleic | Refined | 232 °C | 450 °F |
Sunflower oil, high oleic | Unrefined | 160 °C | 320 °F |
Vegetable oil blend | Refined | 220 °C | 428 °F |
After owning one of the best cooking stores in the US for 47 years, Nancy Pollard writes a blog about food in all its aspects – recipes, film, books, travel, superior sources and food related issues.
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Hi, Nancy. I only use EVOO and expeller-pressed grapeseed oil. I never use oil bottled in plastic. What olive oil is cold-pressed and slightly refined.
Hi Victoria,
It's good to hear from you! Here it means that usually a charcoal filter is used to make it better for frying or to remove impurities, but no chemical solvents are used. Not sure what it's involved in the US. I loved using grapeseed oil when I was in the US. It was stellar for frying.
Nancy
After much tasting and research, I settled on Terra Delyssa, organic, first cold pressed extra virgin olive oil; farmer produced in Tunisia, and it is traceable and is not difficult to source.
When in business, I used grapeseed oil when making sweet & spicy pecans due to the high smoke point, but for Moi, I even gave up grass-fed Irish butter last month. Instead of frying my morning eggs, I now boil them and top the chopped eggs with EVOO and Himalayan salt.
As I age, less even becomes more. ;-)
Hello Diane,
One of the best (and inexpensive) olive oils we used to carry was from Tunisa, which also was organic. Interesting that you choose Himalayan salt, too. And yes, less can be more, when you have good ingredients!
Nancy
Yes, Nancy, I choose Himalayan salt, as our oceans are rapidly becoming polluted and microplastics prevail. I have stopped eating all fish for the same reason. I think all sea salts should be tested for microplastics before sale. So sad for our planet, our people and our food. Diane