Is Your Avocado Oil Even Avocado Oil?

In a list of healthy oils these days, avocado oil easily makes the cut. It has a high smoking point as well, which makes it a perfect oil for cooking at high temps. You will find beef tallow, avocado oil, and coconut oil as the main staples of cooking oils in my kitchen. I’ll occasionally use extra virgin olive oil but it’s not my go-to. I’d probably skip avocado oil all together if it were not for it’s high smoke point. There’s just too much unknown when buying avocado oil if you haven’t done your research. Which is why I’m here to tell you that you may not want to spend the extra bucks on quality oil if it’s not as quality as you think.

In a new study published in the journal of Food Control, researchers extensively looked into the purity and quality of store bough avocado oil. What they found was both shocking and sad. Out of the 22 imported and domestic avocado oil samples they tested, 82% were either rancid or mixed with other oils (even if they were labeled as “pure” or “extra virgin” avocado oil). Which means, that even if you read your labels you most likely wont be getting what the label says. Even worse, 2 of the samples with those labels contained 100% soybean oil (an oil I avoid like the plague). Six of the samples contained large amounts of sunflower, safflower, and soybean oil. So we are paying extra, trying to avoid processed seed oils, and we are getting them anyway (depending on the brand of avocado oil we buy).

How does this happen? Well, Selina Wang PhD, who led this study said that avocado oil is a new product and isn’t regulated, which makes it ways for companies to falsify the information on the labels. Because there are no standards to determine if an avocado oil is of the quality and purity advertised, no one is regulating false or misleading labels.

It’s kind of like when you see the label “cage free” on your eggs and you picture free range happy chickens. But this is not what you are getting. But that’s for another post.

The researchers in the study found only two brands that were actually pure avocado oil and not rancid by the expiration date: Marianne’s Avocado Oil and Chosen Foods 100% Pure Avocado Oil. Cal Pure Extra-Virgin Avocado Oil was found to be “pure and fresher than the other samples in the same grade’ of virgin oils. Everything else did NOT live up to their label.

I’m thankful for our Costco membership because they sell Marianne’s Avocado Oil at a great price! I keep it in a dark cupboard so it wont go rancid as fast and I pour it into this oil holder that’s dark and keeps the light out when it’s on my counter (which also keeps it from going rancid). Costco also sells the Chosen Food Avocado oil spray. So does Thrive Market and Amazon.

This study saddens me, but I’m happy to know now what I didn’t before. Not only was I paying high prices for some low-quality oil, but these hidden processed seed oils could have also been affecting our health.

I rarely use olive oil for the same reason. Many of them are cut with cheaper oils. I’ll hopefully get a post out soon on which brands of olive oil you can trust.

In the meantime, don’t give up on healthy avocado oil. Just make sure you shop brands you know you can trust!

I love using avocado oil on our favorite Crispy Chicken recipe because I can cook at high heat without worry. It’s also great for roasting veggies and potatoes, and searing steaks to perfection.

*Some of the above links are affiliate links.  Click here to learn more about affiliate links.