date:Nov 26, 2012
nd can form a substantial proportion of the calories in the Western diet (up to 25 per cent). They are also used in the production of many non-food products such as paints, lubricants, cosmetics, detergents, plastics and resins, and increasingly they are feedstock for the production of biofuels. In doing so, they present more sustainable alternatives to petrochemicals, from which many of these products are currently derived.
In the UK oilseed rape (Brassica napus) is our major vegetable oil cro