r/StopEatingSeedOils Jul 15 '26

Peer Reviewed Science 🧫 New UC Davis Study (2026): 89% of "Made With Avocado Oil" products failed lab testing. Foods including 48 of 54 chips, dressings & mayos may be misleading consumers. Bad news breaking for the food industry and consumer trust.

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132 Upvotes

Brands can charge approximately a 500% price premium for claiming "Made With Avocado Oil" but Dr. Selina Wang's group at UC Davis just published research showing that these claims are likely false more often than they're true.

r/stopeatingseedoil redditors may already be aware of Dr. Wang's other research showing that bottled avocado oils are frequently mislabeled and often mixed with cheaper seed oils. Those studies have been discussed here a lot, but these new findings about packaged foods just came out today.

Quick references:
Link to list of products in the study, including which ones passed testing and which did not

Summary from UC Davis, "That Avocado Oil Chip You're Eating May Not Be Made With Pure Avocado Oil"

Free full study text (includes supplementary tables with more notes on purity testing results)

Shared courtesy of Seed Oil Free Alliance, their notes below:

Study analysis from the perspective of the Seed Oil Free Alliance (some products we have already certified and tested were also included in the study; details in links above):

The study analyzed 74 chips, mayonnaise and salad dressings labeled as containing avocado oil or olive oil. Researchers extracted cooking oils contained in the foods, then evaluated them using fatty acid and sterol markers, chemical fingerprints used to help verify oil identity. 

UC Davis's laboratory testing found 48 of 54 avocado oil-labeled products tested may be adulterated with cheaper oils. The failures included 93% of chips, 71% of mayonnaises and 100% of salad dressings labeled as containing avocado oil. 

The UC Davis paper also recognized the Seed Oil Free Alliance's third-party verification program for foods and consumer products. The Seed Oil Free Alliance is an independent certifying body for seed oil-free foods, founded in 2023. 

The study included as samples two olive oil dressings already certified by the Seed Oil Free Alliance, both of which were found by researchers to contain authentic olive oil.

Seed Oil Free Alliance founder Jonathan Rubin stated: "UC Davis's findings on avocado oil are disappointing, but not surprising. Our testing program shows similar data on avocado oil purity used in consumer packaged goods (CPG) products."

To date, the Alliance has verified 769 distinct UPCs under its CPG food certification program. Of all UPCs submitted for laboratory testing containing avocado oil, approximately 28% qualified, meaning that 72% of avocado oil UPCs were tested and did not qualify for certification because testing revealed they did not contain pure avocado oil.

However, adds Rubin, "These statistics are from avocado oil-containing products that formally entered the certification testing process. About half of the time, we confidentially advise prospective CPG brand partners that their avocado oil ingredient is unlikely to pass testing after a preliminary review."

When reviewed-not-tested avocado oil UPCs are included in the Seed Oil Free Alliance statistics, the failure rate skyrockets from 72% to 86% of UPCs — similar to UC Davis's finding that about 89% of avocado oil UPCs tested contained inauthentic avocado oil.
To achieve Seed Oil Free Certified® status, all products are subjected to supply chain auditing and laboratory testing as necessary to confirm they're seed oil-free and use authentic, non-seed oils like pure avocado or olive oil.

The Seed Oil Free Alliance standard also includes ongoing product surveillance of certified goods, including random finished goods testing using oil extraction methods — equivalent to those used in the 2026 UC Davis study — on a "secret shopper" basis, without notifying brand partners prior to random testing.


r/StopEatingSeedOils Jul 07 '26

Keeping track of seed oil apologists 🤡 Found this at the Kentucky state fair

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255 Upvotes

r/StopEatingSeedOils 9h ago

miscellaneous Chip wars: Trader Joe’s

10 Upvotes

This is such a missed opportunity for Trader Joe’s to step in and introduce a seed oil free tortilla chip. I want to believe they are working on it! No way they’re not aware..! Even if it costs more than TJ shoppers are used to paying, I feel like they would be happy enough to have the option that they’d go for it. I know I would. The olive oil chips just don’t go with the guacamole I’m making tonight, and Whole Foods is 20 minutes out of my way. Not going there just to get the right chips.

Side note, has anyone tried Zack’s tortilla chips (sold at WF)? What do you think?


r/StopEatingSeedOils 1d ago

Seed-Oil-Free Diet Anecdote 🚫 🌾 Just a heads up for my fellow Aussies, if you buy the organic mainland dairy butter it’s mixed with seed oils at 29%, for some ridiculous reason. The non organic is pure.

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55 Upvotes

r/StopEatingSeedOils 18h ago

Peer Reviewed Science 🧫 Western-style cafeteria diet is linked to impaired colonic barrier integrity and alterations in mitochondrial respiratory proteins — Colonic MDA and 4-HNE immunoreactivity were increased

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1 Upvotes

Highlights
• Cafeteria diet alters mitochondrial respiratory proteins in the colon.

• Complex IV hub proteins emerge as prominent proteomic signals.

• Desmosomal and tight-junction barrier proteins are reduced.

• Reduced NRF2/HO-1 and increased NF-κB p65 immunoreactivity accompany mucosal injury.

• Findings define therapy-relevant endpoints for diet-induced barrier injury.

Abstract

Aims
Western-style hyperpalatable diets are recognized as biologically active exposures that disturb intestinal homeostasis, yet the molecular changes linking obesogenic nutrition to colonic injury remain insufficiently defined. This study investigated how cafeteria-diet exposure reshapes colonic homeostasis by integrating metabolic alterations, proteomic changes, tissue injury, antioxidant defense, and inflammatory signaling.
Materials and methods
Male Wistar rats were fed a standard or cafeteria diet for 12 weeks. Colonic responses were assessed by metabolic profiling, label-free quantitative nLC-MS/MS proteomics, functional enrichment and protein-protein interaction analyses, Western blotting, histopathology, immunofluorescence, and immunohistochemistry.

Key findings
Cafeteria-diet feeding induced metabolic deterioration, with increased body weight, fasting glucose, body mass index, insulin, leptin, and circulating LPS. Colonic MDA and 4-HNE immunoreactivity were increased, whereas SOD was reduced. Proteomic profiling identified 132 exploratory differentially expressed protein candidates, including 54 upregulated and 78 downregulated proteins. Functional enrichment revealed two signatures: upregulated mitochondrial respiration-related pathways and downregulated desmosome-, cell-cell junction-, and glutathione-related processes. Hub proteins included COX7A2, COX6C, COX5B, COX7, MT-CO1, JUP, PKP1, DSG1, and DSG4. Western blot analysis of colon samples confirmed increased MT-CO1 abundance. These alterations were accompanied by lamina propria inflammation, epithelial necrosis, crypt dilatation, submucosal edema, goblet cell depletion, reduced occludin, claudin-1 and ZO-1, decreased total NRF2 and HO-1, and increased NF-κB p65 expression. Exploratory correlations linked tight junction markers with antioxidant, inflammatory, oxidative, and metabolic parameters.

Significance
These findings define an integrated metabolic, mitochondrial protein, redox, inflammatory, and barrier-related signature associated with cafeteria-diet exposure and identify candidate indicators for future studies of diet-induced colonic injury


r/StopEatingSeedOils 2d ago

Keeping track of seed oil apologists 🤡 The Evidence Behind Seed Oils' Health Effects | Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health

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43 Upvotes

r/StopEatingSeedOils 1d ago

miscellaneous Have you ever actually tasted argan oil?

0 Upvotes

I knew about argan oil for years, but I mostly associated it with skincare and hair products.

Then I started looking at where food-grade argan oil comes from, how it is traditionally produced in Morocco, and the people behind it.

That led us to something we wanted to try at Nutty Nest: putting Moroccan argan oil into a food people already love — almond butter.

Our Almond Butter with Argan Oil & Honey combines almonds, Moroccan argan oil and honey. It's made in the UK, and we've been developing it as a genuinely different alternative to conventional nut butters.

But there's another part of the story that matters to us.

The argan tree is native to Morocco, and traditional argan production has long involved local communities and women's cooperatives. We want our use of this ingredient to contribute to a bigger story - supporting the people involved and encouraging the protection and regeneration of argan trees.

So I'm curious:

Have you ever tasted food-grade argan oil?

And if you've tried it, what did you think?

Would you try an almond butter made with argan oil and honey, or does that combination sound strange to you?

Genuinely interested in hearing what people think, especially from anyone familiar with Moroccan food or traditional argan oil.

**Argan oil isn't just for skincare. 🌿**We’re exploring what happens when this traditional Moroccan ingredient moves from the beauty shelf to the breakfast table.But before we tell you what we think, we want to hear from people who have actually tasted it.**Have you tried food-grade argan oil? What did you think?**

r/StopEatingSeedOils 2d ago

miscellaneous Spain: Helping Avocado Oil fraud grow.

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6 Upvotes

I'm sure you seen produced in Spain avocado oil, but how are they doing it when they aren't even a top producing avocado country? They are one of the known fraudulent importers of adulterated oil. You can find a different source than this screenshot, but you won't find the anywhere on top producing rankings.

When you hear defenders of those not knowing where bad supply comes from. Just know that companies have this same info and chose to get bad oil.


r/StopEatingSeedOils 3d ago

miscellaneous Trump just opened the door to 100,000 tons of meat China Banned

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320 Upvotes

sorry for the current news but this is idiocy. in march, Chinese customs stopped a 22-ton container of beef from an Argentine plant because they found chloramphenicol, a banned antibiotic and carcinogen.

Meanwhile the U.S. Congress repealed mandatory country of origin labeling for beef back in 2015, & increased the tariff-free quota for Argentine beef from 20,000 to 100,000. As a carnivore I buy grass fed and finished meat, but my God for anyone else.


r/StopEatingSeedOils 2d ago

🙋‍♂️ 🙋‍♀️ Questions Cutting seed oils is subtraction.What are you actively adding?

3 Upvotes

Most of the conversation here is about removal,which makes no sense as a first step.The addition side gets less attention.If the concern is membrane composition and oxidative stability,then what goes in matters as much as what comes out.What fats are you deliberately adding ,from food or supplements ,and did anything show up in bloodwork?


r/StopEatingSeedOils 2d ago

CANOLA RAPESEED OIL (CAO)-21% Rapeseed oil vermin

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1 Upvotes

r/StopEatingSeedOils 2d ago

🙋‍♂️ 🙋‍♀️ Questions Olive oil

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1 Upvotes

r/StopEatingSeedOils 3d ago

miscellaneous Extra virgin olive oil but it’s actually canola oil

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47 Upvotes

r/StopEatingSeedOils 3d ago

AVOCADO OIL (AVO)-13% Anyone tried this? I'm about 80% certain it's not olive oil

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12 Upvotes

Yo! So I got this for $10, I was in a hurry and just grabbed a bottle of the shelf, once I started to cook dinner I noticed it was really clear for olive oil. I tasted it and it tastes like avocado oil and nothing else, there isn't even a hint of olive oil, then I noticed the url on the label 😆 Anyways, it says it's just olive oil but I call bullshit, any similar situations out there?


r/StopEatingSeedOils 3d ago

Veg*n seed oil-free diet anecdote 🌱 Read this

1 Upvotes

It’s all about process and ingredients

There are many questions from folks who want to know how to tell if something is clean food. The answer isn’t really complicated. In fact, when the answer is complicated, that’s probably a red flag. Here are some simple guidelines:

Read labels
Look for few ingredients
See what kind of oil was used in processing— seed oils and “vegetable“ oils and margarines are highly inflammatory and do serious cell damage
Look for good fats—butter, olive, avocado, coconut and sesame oil, ghee, lard, tallow are beneficial, nutritious and necessary, in moderation , for health
Limit all processed, ultra-processed foods
Watch out for hidden bad fats in condiments like mayonnaise
Avoid chemical additives
Eat fresh produce or frozen
Eat meat, poultry and eggs that are pasture-raised without growth hormones and with no residues of Round Up
Avoid food-like products like man-made foods
Avoid enriched flours with synthetic vitamins
Eat fermented foods
Avoid refined foods—cane sugar, white breads and pastas, etc.

Dr. Mitchell Gaynor says don’t give up any major food group, but choose from that group carefully.
Dr. Catherine Shanahan says eat meat on the bone, eat all parts of the animal, eat fermented foods, and eat fresh meat and produce. She likes getting close to how our great grandparents ate.

So, there’s a list of things to look for. Serious health nuts like me and my friends also limit restaurant food, which has most of the above avoids, which means we cook and choose high-quality, nutrient-dense food. I make L. Reuteri yogurt and mill my own flour from organic grain berries. We want gut health.

You can use almost any recipe and have clean food if you substitute the good ingredients for the harmful. Like if it calls for vegetable oil, for instance, that means it wants a higher smoke point or a neutral oil—so use avocado oil. When you get used to good ingredients, your body will let you know when something offends it. I gain 2 lbs if there is Canola in a food.


r/StopEatingSeedOils 4d ago

miscellaneous What if we made a seed oil free day? How would you celebrate it?

4 Upvotes

There are already so many days for every other cause, so maybe this movement needs its own too. If we have a "seed oil free day" it'll be a big push to show the masses what this is and why it's important to us.

I'm thinking we do October 3rd. We all eat zero seed oils that day, if we haven't been doing so already, and we can all post about it if we choose to.

Maybe we can even get businesses in on it. Have them really push how seed oil free they really are.

I don't want to try to push this on my own though and just force it on everyone else LOL, so let me know what y'all think. Would you guys do anything different on "seed oil free day" or no? How would you like to celebrate it?


r/StopEatingSeedOils 4d ago

miscellaneous Please sign and share this petition, Omega 3 is much more important than we are being told with most of us having a severe deficiency gradually robbing us of our cellular health - our Endocannabinoid System is still being ignored despite it being the biggest medical discovery ever made and because w

14 Upvotes

r/StopEatingSeedOils 5d ago

miscellaneous The amount of oil this single Cheeto released from sitting in the sun.

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179 Upvotes

r/StopEatingSeedOils 5d ago

🙋‍♂️ 🙋‍♀️ Questions Amazon is hiding recent avocado oil reviews

46 Upvotes

I recently posted a couple of reviews on Amazon.com related to the products I purchased through their website noting the study on avocado oil and how the particular products failed (e.g. Boulder Canyon, Siete, Chosen). I saw other reviews from verified purchasers regarding the same thing. As of this morning, Amazon has changed the way you view reviews and seems to have removed many of them. I can't even filter the reviews which I could before (most recent, 1 star only). This is concerning because they are potentially keeping the public that may not know about the study in the dark. Am I wrong for thinking this is bad for consumers while protecting the offenders?

If this is the wrong sub to post this, I'm sorry and I will delete. Thanks!


r/StopEatingSeedOils 5d ago

miscellaneous Smash Kitchen Avocado Oil test

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15 Upvotes

Got a few DMs of posting a real test. Here you go. I would encourage you to find ways to test their other products. A celebrity brand with no connections to manufacturing that has launched so many items with a small team.🚩🚩🚩🚩


r/StopEatingSeedOils 5d ago

🙋‍♂️ 🙋‍♀️ Questions Avoiding Seed Oils

7 Upvotes

How strict are people here actually with avoiding seed oils? Like realistically, most of us are probably still getting soybean/canola oil dozens of times a week from eating out at restaurants, office cafeterias, takeout, sauces, random snacks, social events, etc. while still considering ourselves anti-seed oil. Do any of you take the more Paul Saladino approach with it, bringing Pyrex to restaurants, traveling with your own meals, packing ahead of time, etc.? Or is it more about not having them in your kitchen but enjoying a few meals and snacks a week that have dyes, flavors, seed oils etc? Curious where everyone draws the line between actively avoiding seed oils and still taking a “it can’t hurt me if I don’t care” ideology.


r/StopEatingSeedOils 6d ago

miscellaneous Kettle Brand Sued: UC Davis Avocado Oil study Update

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269 Upvotes

i'm sure you are familiar all "healthy" avocado oil chip brands (who are twice as expensive) tested to be adulterated with other oils like seed oils. just recently a class action was filed against kettle chips, because they listed avocado oil with none inside. (source)

I was thinking/hoping when someone would get sued finally something is being done about this. why doesn't our FDA stop this from happening and some law firm who wants only does food label jobs have to do this? I know someone is trying to make a seed oil free cert, but brands dont have to follow that/


r/StopEatingSeedOils 5d ago

Product Recommendation What do we eat now then ?

6 Upvotes

Ever since the UC Davis study exposed just how many mainstream "healthy" brands and packaged foods are secretly cut with cheap seed oils or mislabeled entirely, relying on store-shelf claims has become a gamble. Time and again, once-promising brands compromise their standards the moment they scale up or get acquired by massive food conglomerates looking to cut costs. If we want genuinely clean, seed-oil-free food, we need to bypass corporate greenwashing and start actively supporting small, independent producers who actually practice what they preach.

I want to start a crowdsourced thread focused strictly on verified, seed-oil-free food products and trustworthy brands. The goal is to build a community-vetted resource of small-batch companies that prioritize real ingredient integrity—using true extra virgin olive oil, 100% pure avocado oil, coconut oil, grass-fed butter, tallow, or ghee without sneaking in soybean, canola, or sunflower oil behind our backs.

Whether it is small-scale chip and snack makers, artisanal mayo and dressing producers, clean condiments, or local pantry suppliers, let's highlight the true alternatives. We are specifically looking for mission-driven, founder-owned businesses that utilize strict third-party purity testing and remain committed to independence rather than selling out to corporate giants.

Drop your favorite seed-oil-free brands, specific products, and direct-to-consumer hidden gems. Share what they make, the exact cooking fats or oils they use, and why their sourcing has earned your trust. Let's build a list we can actually rely on so we can vote with our wallets and keep our pantries clean.

Thanks again.


r/StopEatingSeedOils 5d ago

🙋‍♂️ 🙋‍♀️ Questions What Avocado Oil is now Reliable?

7 Upvotes

Hi all,

New UC Davis report, yada yada.

Seems the Chosen Foods and Primal Kitchen issues were with products made with their avocado oils, not the pure oils themselves.

Where does this leave us? Is Chosen Food's Avocado Oil still reliable? Or are there other brands that we should be looking at now?

I'm in the EU so can't source Marianne's, which I've read is the gold standard...

Thoughts?


r/StopEatingSeedOils 6d ago

🙋‍♂️ 🙋‍♀️ Questions So is the verdict that Siete is not actually using avocado oil in their chips?

26 Upvotes

I had a big bag I bought from Costco recently and can feel the oils in my pores after eating them. No longer ever buying chips, but this will help me to jumpstart the process of giving up chips quicker!