Canola oil is roughly 63% monounsaturated fat, 31% polyunsaturated fat, and 6% saturated fat, making it one of the lowest-saturated-fat cooking oils available. But “what’s in it” goes beyond the nutrition label. The oil starts as seeds from a specially bred rapeseed plant, then undergoes industrial refining that involves solvents, high heat, and bleaching before it reaches your kitchen. Here’s what ends up in the final product.
The Fat Profile
Canola oil’s calling card is its high proportion of monounsaturated fat, the same type that dominates olive oil. A typical bottle breaks down to 60 to 65% monounsaturated fatty acids, 30 to 35% polyunsaturated fatty acids, and just 5 to 8% saturated fat. That saturated fat number is lower than nearly every other common cooking oil, including olive, coconut, and soybean.
The polyunsaturated portion contains both omega-6 and omega-3 fatty acids in roughly a 5.6 to 1 ratio. The omega-3 present is alpha-linolenic acid (ALA), a plant-based form your body can partially convert into the longer-chain omega-3s found in fish. Most Western diets skew heavily toward omega-6, so canola’s ratio is considered relatively favorable compared to corn oil or sunflower oil, which contain very little omega-3 at all.
How Canola Differs From Rapeseed Oil
Canola is not just another name for rapeseed oil. Traditional rapeseed oil contains high levels of erucic acid, a long-chain fatty acid linked to heart damage in animal studies. In the 1970s, Canadian plant breeders developed low-erucic-acid varieties, and the name “canola” (Canadian oil, low acid) was born. Under U.S. federal regulations, oil can only be labeled canola if erucic acid makes up no more than 2% of its total fatty acids. Standard canola oil contains only trace amounts.
The breeding also reduced glucosinolates, bitter-tasting compounds in the seeds that limited rapeseed’s use as animal feed. Modern canola is essentially a domesticated, food-safe version of its industrial ancestor.
How It’s Processed
Most canola oil on store shelves is refined, meaning it goes through several industrial steps between the seed and the bottle. After the seeds are crushed mechanically to press out some oil, the remaining oil is extracted using hexane, a petroleum-derived solvent. Hexane is extremely efficient at pulling oil from seeds and is used across virtually the entire oilseed crushing industry worldwide.
After extraction, the oil goes through degumming, bleaching, and deodorization. That last step heats the oil above 200°C (around 400°F and sometimes as high as 455°F) under vacuum to strip out volatile compounds that affect taste and shelf life. The refining process also removes most of the hexane. In Europe, finished edible oils typically contain less than 1 mg/kg of residual hexane. Canada sets a legal maximum of 10 ppm for edible oils and fats. Australia and New Zealand cap it at 0.3 mg/kg. These trace amounts are considered safe by food safety authorities in all major markets.
Cold-pressed or expeller-pressed canola oil does exist, though it’s far less common. These versions skip the hexane step and retain more of the seed’s natural flavor and color, but they cost more and have a shorter shelf life.
Trans Fats From Deodorization
Here’s something the nutrition label won’t always show. The high-heat deodorization step converts a small portion of canola oil’s unsaturated fats into trans fats. Refined canola oil typically contains 1.9 to 3.6% trans fatty acids, mostly from the transformation of its omega-3 (linolenic acid) component. This is not the same as the industrially produced trans fats in partially hydrogenated oils, which have been largely banned, but it’s worth knowing about if you’re trying to minimize trans fat intake entirely.
For context, a tablespoon of canola oil contains about 14 grams of fat total, so 2 to 3% trans fat translates to roughly 0.3 to 0.5 grams per tablespoon. U.S. labeling rules allow products with less than 0.5 grams of trans fat per serving to list “0g” on the label, which is why most canola oil bottles show zero.
Vitamins and Minor Components
Canola oil provides small amounts of two fat-soluble vitamins. One tablespoon contains about 10 micrograms of vitamin K, which plays a role in blood clotting and bone health. It also supplies vitamin E in the form of tocopherols, which act as antioxidants that help protect the oil itself from going rancid. Neither amount is large enough to make canola oil a meaningful source of these nutrients on its own, but they do contribute to your daily intake if you cook with it regularly.
Refined canola oil is otherwise stripped of most plant compounds during processing. The bleaching and deodorizing steps remove pigments, free fatty acids, and many of the polyphenols that would be present in a cold-pressed version.
GMO Content
In North America, the vast majority of canola is genetically modified. As of the most recent USDA data, GMO varieties account for about 95% of canola planted in the United States. These modifications primarily make the plants resistant to specific herbicides, allowing farmers to control weeds more effectively. If you want to avoid GMO canola oil, look for USDA Organic or Non-GMO Project Verified labels, both of which exclude genetically engineered crops.
Cooking Properties
Refined canola oil has a smoke point between 400 and 475°F, which makes it suitable for sautéing, roasting, baking, and deep frying. Its flavor is intentionally neutral after refining, so it won’t compete with other ingredients in a dish. That neutrality is precisely why it shows up so often in restaurant kitchens, processed foods, and baked goods. If you check ingredient lists on salad dressings, chips, frozen meals, or commercial baked goods, canola oil is one of the most frequently listed vegetable oils.
Its combination of a high smoke point, low saturated fat, mild taste, and low cost explains why canola oil became one of the most widely used cooking oils in the world within just a few decades of its introduction.