Why is Mustard Oil Banned in US and Europe? [video]

To save you a click, Mustard Oil is banned because it contains 40% erucic acid, which is toxic to human beings and animals. The legal safe limit in the US and EU is 2% erucic acid, but commercially sold oils are typically under 0.1%. This was set to achieve a >100X safety factor based on tests of infant animals.

The main premise of the video seems to be that erucic acid is not as toxic to humans as has been reported, so current safety standards are excessive and it should be safe to consume mustard oil. Their main argument is that mustard oil is a popular cooking oil in India and is not known to cause erucic acid disease there. A possible counter-argument could be that perhaps the ways it is used there limit total exposure levels. Maybe if it was easily available in the US people would use it in ways that do expose them to toxic levels, such as trying to deep fry with it. Perhaps this is only a risk to pregnant women or young children, which is why the original safety factor was set so high.

For people who want the flavor of mustard oil without exposure to erucic acid, it's possible to mix some mustard essential oil into any neutrally flavored oil such as canola.