Canola and Rapeseed edited by Heitor Vasile

Includes bibliographies and index

People are sometimes confused between the use of the terms rapeseed and canola. Rapeseed oil, also called canola oil, has a mild flavour that makes it multipurpose in the kitchen. Canola is one of the most important oilseed crops of the world, as its production over the last 10 years has grown much faster than any other source of edible vegetable oil. The oil also has a high smoke point, which means that it can be cooked at high temperatures without the oil breaking down -- a process that affects the food's flavor. However the oil should be consumed in moderation due to its high calorie content. Rapeseed oil provides body the nutrients needed to maintain health. Canola Oil is perhaps the only edible vegetable oil that by today's standards is considered to be nutritionally well balanced. Besides being used commercially as cooking oil, canola is one of the preferred oil in salad dressings, margarines, shortening, deep frying, baking, spreads, and creamers. Canola oil features clear light yellow color with neutral flavour. It blends with added herbs and spices and allows the flavour of herbs and spices to dominate. Additionally, its protein meal is well balanced in its amino acid content and perhaps in the not too distant future may commercially be upgraded for human consumption. This book entitled Canola and Rapeseed reports the state-of-the-art developments in the production, chemistry, analyses, nutritional properties, and commercial processing of canola and rapeseed. Recent advances in the biotechnology of canola production and genetic variations and developments of seeds, new methods of analyses, and recent studies to upgrade the canola proteins are presented. The text will be of interest to advanced undergraduate and graduate students as well as researchers in universities, industries, and government laboratories. Food scientists, crop and agricultural engineers, chemists and biochemists, nutritionists, and technologists along with plant breeders will find it a valuable tool.