Thursday, March 31, 2005

Canola / Rapeseed / Raps

Thanks to an article in the New Scientist, I now know that Rapsöl is really canola oil. Good to know - I always felt odd telling my wife, "Don't worry - we have more than enough rape oil for lunch!"

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

The Canadian farm marketers who dreamed up the name 'Canola' could have made it a trademark, but they let it get away. Maybe they were happy just to find a name that worked in the market. I recall that when the product first appeared on supermarket shelves in the US, it was being marketed as 'LEAR oil' (for 'low erucic acid rapeseed').

Only in English was a new name needed. There's nothing problematic about, for example, 'colza' in French.

Trench Warrior said...

Let me get this straight: instead of letting shoppers quote Shakespeare, the marketers just made shit up?

No wonder American Idol is so big nowadays.