Topline
Almost all processed foods on grocery store shelves claiming to be made with avocado oil actually contain cheaper substitute oils, according to a new study by University of California Davis researchers who say a supply-chain accountability gap is to blame as customers pay a premium price for products that often don’t match their labels.
Key Facts
The study, published Wednesday by Science Direct, found that 48 of the 54 avocado oil-labeled products tested also contained cheaper oils like canola and safflower.
The study tested chips, salad dressings and mayonnaises that claimed to be made fully with avocado oil and found that most labels were misleading—every single salad dressing tested failed the researcher’s purity checks, while 93% of avocado oil-labeled chips and 71% of avocado oil-labeled mayonnaises also contained other oils.
The researchers analyzed the natural chemical makeup of the oil in products purchased from online retailers and California stores—like their fatty acids and fatty alcohol esters—and compared them with authentic avocado oil to identify samples that had likely been diluted with cheaper vegetable oils.
They also did the same battery of tests on 20 olive oil-labeled processed foods and found that only one product failed—a stark divergence that reflects decades of regulatory scrutiny applied to olive oil but not yet to avocado oil, per the study.
Lead author Selina Wang, a UC Davis food science professor, explained that brands may not know they are using adulterated oil because most food companies source their oils from third-party brokers or from several different suppliers and, without rigorous testing, the impurity would never be discovered.
Wang said suppliers are likely intentionally blending their avocado product with less expensive vegetable oils before selling it as pure avocado oil.
The study tested products from two dozen brands including Chosen Foods, Kettle Brand, Lay’s, Lesser Evil, Primal Kitchen, Siete and Simply Frito Lay.
CRUCIAL QUOTE
“Consumers are increasingly paying a premium for products made with avocado oil or olive oil,” Wang said in a statement. “They deserve to get what they pay for and food manufacturers deserve confidence that the ingredients they purchase from suppliers are authentic.”
BIG NUMBER
More than 500%. That’s the premium on avocado oil products versus comparable items made with cheaper oils. Conventional mayonnaise, for instance, costs about 10 cents per ounce on Walmart’s website. Avocado oil mayo made by Chosen Foods and Primal Kitchen is priced at 67 cents and 65 cents per ounce, respectively.
Key background
Health trends and a rise in “better-for-you” packaged foods have turned avocado oil into a mainstream cooking ingredient over the last decade, similar to how olive oil, coconut oil and Mediterranean-style diets have risen in popularity. Avocado oil is naturally low in saturated fat and is perceived as a “cleaner” alternative to vegetable oils, meaning companies can package products as healthier, more premium choices by marketing them as “made with avocado oil.” The boom helped create demand for the oil but that demand wasn’t met with new industry standards for purity, which helped create the conditions for adulteration pointed out in the UC Davis study. Today, a producer can easily increase profits by blending a small amount of avocado oil with cheaper oils like canola or safflower, while keeping marketing the same.
TANGENT
The new findings released Wednesday extend a pattern UC Davis has been documenting for years. A 2020 study from the same institution found that 82% of commercially bottled avocado oils were either rancid or blended with other oils. A subsequent study found 70% of private-label avocado oils were rancid or adulterated.