Vegetable Oil - Canola OIl

Foochows of Sibu came from Fujian in the 1900's and they brought the making of cooking oil culture to Sibu. Although Canola (yiu chai) cannot be grown in huge areas in Sibu, the Foochows have been making cooking oil from lard, sunflower seeds, peanuts and coconut.

Canola oil is produced from the seed of many varieties of the rape plant(Brassica napus L.) or field mustard/turnip rape (Brassica rapa subsp. oleifera, syn. Brassica campestris L.). This is a bottle of canola oil from Wesson Company. 



Malaysia has gone into the production of cooking oil to reduce the importation of many different kinds of oil from other countries.

However the Foochows continue to prefer oil made from canola or sunflower seeds.

Improved technology has also reduced the cost of producing cooking oil, especially oil from oil palm so housewives do not have to make their own cooking oil. It would be cheaper to buy.