You'll Never Guess How Canola Oil Got Its Name

I don't know where I thought the name for canola oil came from, but I definitely didn't think that it was an acronym!

"The canola plant is a 'distant younger cousin' of the rapeseed plant. The rapeseed plant was originally grown to make meal for cows in the latter half of the 20th century. Rapeseed plants naturally had mid-to-high levels of eurcic acid, which is a component of each fat molecule. A ruminant cow can easily ingest this eurcic acid in its 4 stomachs, but the human digestion can’t take much of it...In the 70’s, scientists and farmers worked to produce a similar plant that had much lower levels of eurcic acid for people to use and eat. This new low-eurcic acid plant, they renamed canola oil (“rapeseed” was an unfortunate name to begin with). The new name came from the acronym CANadian Oil Low Acid (because it was mostly grown in Canada, and this new variety was low in eurcic acid). Hence the name: CAN-O-L-A", states a May 3, 2019 article by Hannah Broaddus on the Centra Foods website.

The more you know!