Canola oil and canola meal research has been funded in part by the Government of Canada under several frameworks of research funding along with the provincial canola grower groups and the Canola Council of Canada. In this quick review, Shaunda Durance-Tod, CanolaInfo manager for the Canola Council of Canada, and Essi Evans, livestock nutrition specialist, highlight influential oil and meal research projects.

15 years of oil and meal research

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Canola Digest Science has focused on canola agronomy advancements since its first issue in 2013. Here is a quick review of canola oil and meal utilization research funded through the federal government’s cluster programs.

Probably the most influential canola oil study from the past 15 years, says Shaunda Durance-Tod, was the “Canola oil multi-centre intervention trial (COMIT).” Durance-Tod is CanolaInfo manager for the Canola Council of Canada (CCC). The COMIT randomized controlled trial study evaluated human subjects at three sites – University of Manitoba in Winnipeg, Laval University in Quebec City and Penn State University in Pennsylvania.

The study, funded through the Government of Canada’s Growing Forward 1 (2009-13) cluster program, examined how the composition of different dietary oils affects metabolic responses important in the development of cardiovascular diseases. Namely, the relationship between dietary oil consumption and arterial function, blood fat content and blood markers of cardiovascular disease risk. The study also examined how the body converts fat from dietary oils into other specific fat compounds with known health benefits. The COMIT study led to 10 published reports in medical journals, and provided more evidence of canola oil’s health benefits. To find the 10 published reports, go to canolacouncil.org/research/oil/ and click on the COMIT study name.

This guide includes decades of research and is regularly revised to keep it up to date.

–Essi Evans

Durance-Tod highlights another notable study, “Effect of canola oil as part of a low glycemic load diet on glucose control and coronary heart disease risk factors in type 2 diabetes.” Conducted at the University of Toronto, the Growing Forward 1 study established canola oil as an effective means to lower the glycemic load of the healthy dietary component for people with type 2 diabetes and added to evidence of its health benefits.

To see more on these studies and the other five canola oil and human health studies conducted over the past 15 years, go to canolacouncil.org/research/oil/. Several publications from these studies also influenced content at canolainfo.org, a consumer-facing website to describe canola oil’s health benefits.

Canola meal in livestock diets

The most important Canola Council of Canada resource for canola meal customers is the Canola Meal Feeding Guide. Many researchers funded through the Government of Canada clusters over the past 15 years provided the published reports cited in the feeding guide, which has sections for dairy, hog, poultry and fish rations.

“Our goal has always been to ensure anyone formulating rations has the most accurate information possible,” says Essi Evans, livestock nutrition specialist who advises the CCC and runs E&E Technical Advisory Services in Bowmanville, Ontario. “This guide includes decades of research and is regularly revised to keep it up to date.”

Evans says the Growing Forward 1 study, “Maximize use of canola meal in high value dairy feeds,” conducted in California, Wisconsin, South Dakota, Quebec and Saskatchewan, provided key information about canola meal amino acid utilization by dairy cows. Evans says the California experiments laid the groundwork for some additional studies that involved large numbers of cows. California dairies represent the biggest market for Canadian canola meal.

The Growing Forward 2 (2013-18) study, “Maximizing use of canola meal in dairy diets,” also included U.S. dairy studies and Evans says results further supported the use of canola meal to boost milk production.

Researchers from University of California – Davis conducted the Canadian Agricultural Partnership (2018-23) study, “Evaluation of canola meal as compared to soybean meal in practical California rations: effects upon long term lactational performance, reproductive performance and metabolic disease,” at Cloverdale Dairy, a large California farm.

The Canola Council of Canada, through these federal government funding partnerships, also supported research to evaluate and improve meal quality, and test canola meal in rations for pigs and chickens. Two new studies, funded in part through the Government of Canada under the Sustainable Canadian Agricultural Partnership, are looking at canola meal in fish diets.

Learn more about canola meal and download a free copy of the Canola Meal Feeding Guide, visit canolamazing.com.