canola oil

What it is

Canola oil — rapeseed oil bred low in erucic acid — is a mild commodity oil with moderate linoleic acid and more plant omega-3 (ALA) than most cheap oils. The name is a naming convention, not a different plant family.

Why it's in pet food

Formulators use it as a balanced, low-cost fatty-acid source that does not fight the recipe's flavor. Its modest ALA content is a small plus, with the usual conversion caveat for pets.

How Bowlmark scores it

Scores are deterministic math over the printed label — the rules below apply to every product identically, and nothing estimates or fills in a blank.

Canola oil carries no flag today: no deduction, and it is not on the whole-foods bonus list. Neutral to the engine — the term lists are versioned, advisor-tuned config, and this page changes with them.

Read the full methodology

Common questions

Answers come from this entry and the scoring rules above — reviewed before publish, like everything else on this page. For anything about your own pet, your vet knows best.

Foods that list canola oil

Ranked by score where scores exist. Placement here is never sold.

• Whisker & Pine Wild-Caught Salmon & Lentil Recipe93
• Kettle Creek Grain-Free Duck & Garden Pea92
• Copper Hollow Whitefish & Potato Limited Ingredient91
• Fernbrook Limited Ingredient Duck & Tapioca Recipe91
• Taste of the Wild Sierra Mountain Canine Recipe with Roasted Lamb91
• Taste of the Wild Ancient Mountain Canine Recipe with Roasted Lamb90
• Canidae Pure Farm To Bowl Free-Range Bison, Lentil & Carrot Grain Free Recipe89
• Canidae Pure Farm To Bowl Wild Boar & Garbanzo Bean Grain Free Recipe89

Sources

• WSAVA Global Nutrition Committee — Selecting a pet food
• NRC Nutrient Requirements of Dogs and Cats (2006)

Related ingredients

• algal oil
• animal fat
• beef tallow
• chia seed
• chicken fat
• coconut oil

Further reading

• Calories on the label: kcal, ME and fair comparisons
• Storing pet food so it stays the food you bought