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Erucic acid

A fatty acid in rapeseed and mustard oils. Canola was bred to have very little of it.

In the body: In young animals, high doses made fat build up in the heart muscle.

The one rated food, Canola oil, needs no cap on how often you eat it: no amount anyone really eats reaches the daily limit.

Builds up over time. Agencies set an amount you can take in every week, or every day, for life. A food measured against it shows the grams that reach it.

All hazards

The limit

  • The agency’s figure7 mg/kg body weight/day
  • For a 70 kg adult490 mg a day
  • Basistolerable daily intake (TDI): what you can take in every day for life
    tolerable daily intake (TDI) (EFSA CONTAM 2016): no-observed-adverse-effect level (NOAEL) 0.7 g/kg body weight/day for myocardial lipidosis in young rats and newborn piglets, uncertainty factor 100 (animal no-observed-adverse-effect level (NOAEL))
  • Average adult intake0.3–1.9 mg/kg body weight/day EFSA 2016 amended: mean dietary exposure for adults 0.3 to 1.9 mg/kg body weight/day across European surveys (all ages 0.3 lower bound to 4.4 upper bound, highest in toddlers 1.2-4.4); P95 for adults 0.9-4.3; P95 for infants 1.7-7.4 and other children 2.1-9.5 (upper bound above the tolerable daily intake (TDI))
  • Source DOI 10.2903/j.efsa.2016.4593

Reviewed foods that carry it

1 reviewed food carries it, 1 of them rated by dose. 2 measurements in all. A preparation measured more than once gets one line, the measurement the dataset leads with or a stricter one, named beside the food; the others fold under it.

Grams to the limit

Grams of each food that reach the limit in its window, for a 70 kg adult. Fewest first: those are the foods to watch.

Known background: an average adult already takes in 0.3–1.9 mg/kg body weight/day. Where the dataset allows, the grams below are the room left after that intake (the median of the surveys’ averages where EFSA gives one, otherwise the highest); beside each, the same limit counted from zero, the food eaten alone.

Named above but not among the foods we review, so no line below: rapeseed and mustard oils.

  1. Canola oil

    Nothing to watch: under the limit for a 9.2 g serving

    More than anyone eats
    No realistic amount reaches the limit.
    0.921 mg (erucic acid) per 9.2 g serving

    Cgc 2024 · grade B

    How it’s rated

    The counted figure is 4,900 g a day, about 532 servings a day.

    No cap: EFSA's tolerable daily intake for erucic acid is 7 mg/kg body weight/day (2016), 490 mg a day for 70 kg. Canadian No. 1 canola oil averages 0.01% erucic acid (Canadian Grain Commission, 2024 harvest samples, oil extracted from the seed, not retail oil), so about 4,900 g of oil eaten alone in a day would reach the limit. A serving carries 0.92 mg, 0.19% of it. Average intake across all age groups is 0.3 (lower bound) to 4.4 (upper bound) mg/kg body weight/day, adults not separated, and the 95th percentile for infants and other children reaches the limit.

    Intake: one 9.21 g (10 mL) serving a day, 70 kg adult · Level in the food: 0.01 % in oil (mean of composites, n = 1600)

    Measured on: Canadian Grain Commission, Harvest Sample Program 2024: canola graded No. 1 Canada, composites of 1,600 samples (oil extracted from the seed, not retail refined oil); national mean erucic acid (C22:1) 0.01% in oil; 5-year run 0.01, 0.03, 0.02, 0.02, 0.03% (2024 back to 2020).

    1 other measurement of this food
    1. EFSA 2016 via UK FSA, European rapeseed oils, lower bound

      Nothing to watch: under the limit

      380g
      reaches the limit in a day
      Counted from zero: this food eaten alone.
      11.8 mg (erucic acid, lower bound) per 9.2 g serving

      FSA 2022 · grade B

      How it’s rated

      No cap: EFSA's 2016 occurrence data, relayed by the UK Food Standards Agency, give a mean of 1,285 mg/kg (lower bound) to 5,215 (upper bound) for rapeseed oil, from 5,832 results. Against the 490 mg daily limit, about 381 g of oil eaten alone in a day would reach it at the lower bound and 94 g at the upper. A serving carries 11.8-48.0 mg, 2.4-9.8% of the limit. More than 80% of results were below the limit of quantification, so the upper bound mostly reflects that limit, not a measurement. This European market figure sits beside the Canadian one, not averaged with it, and runs 13-52 times higher.

      Intake: one 9.21 g (10 mL) serving a day, 70 kg adult · Level in the food: 1,285 mg/kg (mean, lower bound (upper bound 5,215), n = 5832)

      Measured on: EFSA 2016 occurrence data as relayed by the UK Food Standards Agency (rapid risk assessment): mean lower bound 1,285 and upper bound 5,215 mg/kg 'applied to rapeseed oils'. The EFSA table itself was NOT opened (Wiley 403); the FSA text also says the range comes from 'food samples' broadly, so the oil scope is the FSA's reading.

Sources