By Green Dog Pet Supply
Every once in a while a customer comes into the store and asks about Canola Oil, as they have read a lot of scary things on the internet about it. Many sites online claim that Canola Oil “is a poisonous substance, an industrial oil that does not belong in the body. They claim that it contains “the infamous chemical warfare agent mustard gas,” hemagglutinins and toxic cyanide-containing glycocides; it causes mad cow disease, blindness, nervous disorders, clumping of blood cells and depression of the immune system”. This same information is copied and pasted to many sites, and though even organic Canola Oil is definitely not our favorite oil (especially when used exclusively in anyone’s diet), these are distortions that should be cleared up for those who are trying to educate themselves about nutrition. Of course, one of the major problems we have with Canola oil is it’s largely a GMO crop that can cross pollinate with other members of the brassica family (broccoli, cabbage, brussels, kale, mustard, etc) damaging these crops (especially organic crops which cannot contain GMO material) and the livelihood of the farmers that grow them. Our discussion here focuses on the safety of Canola oil in pet foods, not to advocate for or against it, just for the sake of objectivity we want to address the truths vs. the fear-mongering.