As regards to camelina oil has 2-3% erucic acid, does anyone know whether camelina sativa oil has FDA approval or another certification as edible oil?
According to AgMRC (Agricultural marketing resource center) it has not received FDA approval as a GRAS (Generally Recognized as Safe) status and so cannot be used commercially in multi-ingredient processed foods.
I hope this answers your question.
Hi Mary
Thank you for your answer.
However why there are many products as camelina oil in the world?
Danial
There are many plant based oils and extracts out there that are believed to have many beneficial qualitites. Many people swear by them both medicinally and culinary. However, the FDA is very slow to move on many of them. Why? Only they could give you their reasoning for the time it takes to do their research. Sorry!
This is the very reason that there are many "natural" and "health food" stores here in the US. They sell many products that use botanical products that are not FDA approved but people want to be able to use them.
I think that the FDA has not approved camelina oil because erucid acid is toxic at concentration greater than 2%. Wild rapeseed oil contains large amounts of erucic acid, which is known to cause health problems, so the canola plant was developed from rapeseed in order to use it to produce a food-grade canola oil with lower erucic acid levels. The name of canola oil was originally LEAR (low erucic acid rapeseed) but for marketing purposes was changed to canola oil. This oil has, or better said, must have less than 2% erucid acid.
All I know that we can buy it in France and use especially for dressing, not for cooking.
Have any studies been done on the the effect of camelina oil on artery constriction?
Camelina oil does have GRAS from the FDA -https://www.accessdata.fda.gov/scripts/fdcc/index.cfm?set=GRASNotices&id=642
However, I have some issues with the GRAS application. The GRAS application lists 22:1 erucic (called Docopentaenoic acid in the GRAS application) as 1.1. This is low compared to published value for erucic which average 3.3 (DOI: 10.1007/978-1-4614-9329-7_8). Also the application lists 20:1 Eicosenoic Acid as 1.8 where the published values are in the range of 12. While eicosenoic is not regarded as unsafe by the FDA, it has served as a biomarker for schizophrenia (Molecular Psychiatry (2013) 18, 67–78). This does not define cause and effect, but it is something to think about.
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