Rapeseed (Brassica napus) is one of the world’s most important oilseed crops. The seeds are small, round, and dark, containing roughly 40 percent oil. While traditional rapeseed varieties contain high levels of erucic acid (which limits their culinary use), modern canola varieties were bred in Canada in the 1970s to have low erucic acid and low glucosinolates, making the oil suitable for cooking.
In Australia, canola is the dominant rapeseed variety and is a major broadacre crop, particularly in New South Wales, Victoria, and Western Australia. Australian canola oil is a widely used cooking oil, valued for its neutral flavour and high smoke point.
Beyond oil production, the meal remaining after pressing is used as high-protein animal feed. Rapeseed is also a feedstock for biodiesel, and the bright yellow flowers of rapeseed fields are a familiar sight in farming regions worldwide.
How it's produced
Rapeseed (canola) is grown as a winter or spring annual crop, depending on climate. In Australia, it is typically sown in autumn and harvested in late spring or early summer. The crop is well suited to the wheat belt rotations of southern Australia, where it helps break disease cycles and fix nitrogen for subsequent cereal crops.
The plants produce clusters of small yellow flowers that develop into seed pods. At maturity, the crop is either swathed (cut and left to dry in rows) or direct-harvested with a combine. Seeds are then transported to crushing facilities where oil is extracted mechanically or with solvents. The resulting crude oil is refined, bleached, and deodorised before sale as cooking oil.
What it costs the planet (per kilo)
* Based on what it takes to produce, from farm to factory gate.
What comes from this
Your household's take
One thumb per person, shared with your household — it steers what the wider-web shelf and the swap chips offer you. Tap again to take it back.
✎ Spotted something wrong? Suggest a correction
Checking who you are...