what's the difference between canola and vegetable oil?
The difference between canola oil and vegetable oil comes from what the two oils are made out of. Canola oil is made from the cultivation of the rapeseed. The rapeseed is cultivated to be low in erucic acid (canola oil must contain 2% or lower erucic acid). Now comes the confusing part. Vegetable oil is made from one or more vegetable plants. In North America, most vegetable oil is made from soybean oil or palm oil, but it could be any combination of those or other oils like cottonseed and sunflower seed. You may be asking yourself what the difference is as everything is a plant.
Vegetable oil is a generic name that can contain oils from various plant based sources. On the other hand, canola oil is oil that comes specifically from canola plant. There are many similarities in between these two oils; so much so that, many vegetable oils contain a high percentage of canola oil. However there are some differences that will be highlighted in this article.