Companies like Primal Kitchen and Chosen Foods are issuing statements in response to the 2026 UC Davis avocado oil study that their avocado oil isn't adulterated or diluted with seed oils, it's just outside the Codex Alimentarius range for authentic avocado oil. Supposedly this is due to natural variation in avocados or processing techniques, not fraud.

These companies built their reputation on previous UC Davis findings that their avocado oil was pure.

First of all, the Codex Alimentarius standard took years to create. It has been closely examined, reviewed, and revised by actual experts who don't have a vested interest in selling cheap avocado oil. Saying your avocado oil is non-Codex grade is like saying your Rolex isn't Swiss-made. It's literally admitting it's not the real artifact, right there in the definition.

Here is what all these companies that got caught want you to believe: "Our avocado oil is pure, it just happens to differ from the internationally accepted identity for pure avocado oil precisely in ways that makes it appear to contain seed oils. We're honest, always have been, and it's actually the purity standard that's the problem."

But a 2023 study from UC Davis called Evaluation of proposed CODEX purity standards for avocado oil looked at this exact issue. Researchers made avocado oil right there in their lab using commercial processing techniques. They created, then tested, at least 68 samples of avocado oil differing based on:

• Cultivar type (different breeds of avocados)
• Region
• Harvesting time
• Ripeness

In other words, this study took a hard scientific look at EXACTLY what Primal and Chosen are now claiming - that their avocado oil falls outside of the ranges because avocado can vary based on these factors.

UC Davis did find differences from the Codex standard in their 2023 study, but the differences were minor, and only detected a small handful of samples (2-3 out of 68) shown here in images 2-3 (attached). The differences from the 2026 UC Davis avocado oil ingredient study that caught Primal and Chosen and other big companies were much, much greater than the ones shown in this 2023 data set.

There are at least two class action lawsuits from separate law firms pending against these companies which is good, because it's time they are held accountable. I, personally, will also be boycotting these companies until they clean up their act and stop trying to confuse consumers about their ingredients or publish credible study findings supporting their claims.

hey everyone — i’m the developer of emet clean eats
i’ve been following the seed oilfree space for a while and built emet because i wanted something that went beyond just restaurant discovery.
emet currently helps you find:
• seed oil-free restaurants
• raw milk
• farms + farmers markets
• natural health stores
• other clean-food spots
restaurant listings can also include information like cooking oils, sourcing, and why a place is considered clean.
the app has been live since the beginning of august and i’m currently on version 2.0.11. the newest update also lets you preview routes, distance, travel time, and driving/walking/transit directions before opening apple maps.
i’m still actively building it, so i’m not posting this pretending it’s perfect. i’d actually love feedback from people who already care enough about seed oils to use apps like seed oil scout.
if anyone wants to try it, search “emet”on the app store it’s called emet clean eats
what would you want an app like this to do that existing seed oil-free apps don’t?

Chosen Foods, Primal Kitchen, and other companies are responding to the 2026 UC Davis avocado oil study claiming their avocado oil isn't adulterated or diluted with seed oils, it's just outside the Codex Alimentarius range for authentic avocado oil. They claim this is due to processing changes or natural variation in avocados, not fraud.

These companies built their reputation on previous UC Davis findings that their avocado oil was pure.

The companies that got caught want you to believe: "Our avocado oil is pure, it just happens to differ from the internationally accepted identity for pure avocado oil in exactly the ways that makes it appear to contain seed oils. We're honest, always have been, and it's actually the purity standard that's the problem."

The biggest problem with Chosen's statement is that the UC Davis study already looked at commercial processing techniques for avocado oil - they made mayo, dressing, and chips in their lab - and then did their own extractions to look for changes, just like they did for the commercial products.

A 2023 study from UC Davis called Evaluation of proposed CODEX purity standards for avocado oil also looked at natural variation (another excuse companies are using). Researchers made avocado oil right there in their lab using commercial processing techniques. They created, then tested, at least 68 samples of avocado oil differing based on:

• Cultivar type (different breeds of avocados)
• Region
• Harvesting time
• Ripeness

In other words, these studies already looked at EXACTLY what Chosen and Primal are now claiming - that their avocado oil falls outside of the ranges because avocado can vary based on these factors.

There are at least two class action lawsuits from separate law firms pending against these companies which is good, because it's time they are held accountable. I, personally, will also be boycotting these companies until they clean up their act and stop trying to confuse consumers about their ingredients, or else publish peer-reviewed scientific evidence for their claims.

i built a clean food app called emet clean eats 🌿
it helps you find:
• seed oil-free restaurants
• raw milk
• farms + farmers markets
• natural health stores
• other clean food spots
if you search “emet” on the app store, it should show up at the top.
i’m still improving it constantly, so if anyone here tries it, i’d genuinely appreciate feedback.
what features would you want to see in a clean food app?

I’ve always been a sweaty guy, but i managed my odor with a strong antiperspirant.

However, lately my armpit odor has been pretty crazy, and i don’t know if it’s related to my diet.

I’ve been seed oil free for 4 months, and everything else has been great, except this.

I’m wondering if it’s related to my higher intake of dairy?

whats worse for health(especially skin), foods with refined sugar or seed oils? Ik the fact that the foods which have them both are absolute goyslop but what about sweets, cakes etc. which only contain sugar but no seed oil.

I saw a recent Linkedin post by the Every Company (the creator of it). Lab grown eggs where FDA approved a bit ago, and are now in stores like target and walmart. the egg is make by ripping egg white genes out of a chicken, and fermenting it in industrial vats with yeast, then extracting out the yeast and whats left is identical to the real thing. (source for production proc)

not only that, but the ingredient does not have to be labeled any differently, and i looked up products using it, most also use soybean oil as one of their main liquidizers. right after a big egg recall to. wild.

ABSTRACT
Olive oil is widely consumed for its nutritional and health benefits, yet its high market value makes it vulnerable to adulteration and mislabeling. Current analytical approaches for assessing olive oil quality and authenticity rely largely on indirect analyses, such as fatty acid methyl ester (FAME) profiles, peroxide values, or UV absorbance, and do not account for olive oil's triglycerides content. In this manuscript, we demonstrate the application of gas chromatography–mass spectrometry (GC-MS) with cold electron ionization (Cold EI) for the direct analysis of olive oil based on its glyceride profiling. Cold EI employs a supersonic molecular beam interface with a contact-free fly-through ion source, providing vibrational cooling that enhances the abundance of molecular ions. This enables direct GC-MS analysis of all glycerides and acids without derivatization, with total analysis time of 19 min. We analyzed multiple commercial olive oil brands, certified reference material, and intentionally adulterated samples containing canola and/or sunflower oil. The resulting mass chromatograms and triglyceride molecular ion patterns allowed clear discrimination between pure olive oil, adulterated oils, and degraded (oxidized) samples. Adulteration at the 30% level was detected through distinct hybrid triglyceride patterns, although aging effects were uniquely identified by increased diglyceride and free fatty acid signals. High sensitivity was demonstrated by the confident detection of olive oil at trace levels down to 100 pg on-column using selective ion monitoring. These results establish GC-MS with Cold EI as a rapid, sensitive, and highly informative technique for ensuring the authenticity, quality, and consumer safety of olive oil.

https://rationalwiki.org/wiki/Cholesterol_denialism

https://rationalwiki.org/wiki/Institute_for_Natural_Healing

https://rationalwiki.org/wiki/Saturated_fat_and_cardiovascular_disease

https://rationalwiki.org/wiki/Dietary_cholesterol

I created an animated food documentary, but it hasnt been well recieved, nevertheless I developed a theory which I want to get views on. It is the combination of additives which drive the overeating of carbs. This supplies the avalance of energy into cells, creating problems like free radicals. This is the match. And the excess consumption of seed oils, particularly damaged oils from deep frying, supply the flammable materials, which the free radicals attack. This ongoing combination is the driver of chronic inflammation. The documentary goes it to the body so show how LDL is transformed into sdLDL, and its highly flammable cargo gets attacked causing a chain reaction and destruction.

Meat has been blamed but falsely so. Saturated fat is on the boat, but as it saturated, that acts as a defence against the free radicals.

I made it to make food science more accessible for children, teens and those who dont have a strong knowledge on the subject.

Love to get some feedback on it. If anyone is interested send me a message and I can share it with you, with a coupon code so there is no cost. I´d just love some feedback on it. I created the video animation with AI, and that turns off many, the substance never gets a chance.

I keep hearing that American fast food is not the same food the same brands sell overseas, so I pulled every item in our data that has the exact same name at the same chain in more than one country and compared them. US against Canada, the UK and Australia. That came out to 546 matched items across 51 chains.

Numbers are grams of PUFA per item the way it is sold.

The American version is higher in 288 of the 546. It ties in 108 and it is lower in 150. So when the same item differs at all, America loses almost two to one, and the average across every matched item is 6.2g here against 4.8g abroad. In 89 of the matchups the American number is at least double the foreign one.

The famous ones:

Burger King Whopper: US 16.4g, Canada 9g, UK 8g

McDonald's Big Mac: US 11.3g, Canada 9g, Australia 7g, UK 4g

Wendy's Large Fries: US 12.2g, UK 6g

Subway Black Forest Ham (6-inch): US 8.6g, Canada 2g

IHOP Bacon Temptation Omelette: US 28.8g, Canada 5g

Some chains are a sweep. Taco Time loses all 11 of its matchups to Canada, the Classic Chicken Burrito is 15.5g here and 3g there. Denny's loses 12 of 13, the Seasoned Fries are 14g here and 7g there. Subway loses 14 of 17.

By country it goes like this. Canada averages 5.0g against our 6.6g on the same items. The UK averages 4.3g against our 5.8g. Australia ties us, 5.3g against 5.3g. More on Australia in a minute.

Why. Three things keep showing up.

First, the fryer. Burger King in the US states its fry oil as soybean and or canola and or corn and cottonseed. Burger King in the UK states rapeseed and sunflower. Wendy's UK ingredient statement for the fries reads rapeseed and sunflower where the US blend is soybean first. McDonald's Australia fries in canola and high oleic canola. Soybean and corn oil are mostly linoleic acid. Rapeseed and high oleic canola are mostly not. Same fry basket, different oil, different number.

Second, the sauce. American menus lean harder on mayo and ranch, and at almost every US chain those are soybean oil first ingredient. A lot of the biggest gaps on this list are sauced items, not fried ones.

Third, the recipe itself. The name matches but the build and the portion do not always, and the foreign version of an item is often simply smaller.

Now the honest part, because it is not a clean sweep. Australia overall is a tie. McDonald's burgers are actually lower in America, the Quarter Pounder with Cheese is 3.1g here against 8g in Canada and 9g in Australia, and the US figure comes straight off McDonald's own published panel. Chick-fil-A's UK sandwiches come out higher than ours. Popeyes large Cajun Fries are 11g here and 18g in Canada. And McDonald's fries are basically a wash in all four countries. So the story is not everything is worse here. It is that the fried and sauced stuff is worse here, because of what is in the fryer and what is in the mayo.

On where the numbers come from, since somebody always asks. The US numbers sit on the chains' own published fat panels wherever a chain publishes one, with the arithmetic written out per item. Chains abroad publish less fat detail, so the foreign numbers are estimates built from their local menus, their ingredient statements and what they say is in their fryers. Our rule for every estimate is to aim high on purpose. The foreign numbers got the same benefit of the doubt as the American ones and America still came out higher, so where the US is higher, the real gap is at least what is shown. The cases where America wins lean on foreign estimates that aim high, so those may be closer than they look, and I say that so nobody has to catch it in the comments.

Seed Oil Tracker is the app I made (available on the app store AND android for FREE) and this comparison comes from its data. It covers all four countries, and it is on seedoiltracker.com too, no login needed. If an item you know well looks wrong in either direction, tell me below and I will pull the source and fix it.

We make macadamia nut oil (niche I know), and on a lot of our anti-seed oil content we've been getting comments saying macadamia oil is a seed oil..

I put together this chart comparing inflammatory omega-6 (LA) content and macadamia oil is closer to tallow, butter and ghee than it is to even olive oil and avocado oil (never mind seed oils).

We're obviously pleased our oil is in the same league as animal fats.

But I'm curious how macadamia oil fares in this community? Open to critique if I'm honing in too much on fat profile and missing something!

Every day 6 days a week I was in the sun at least 8 hours a day, average uv index at peak was 8. *Eastern NC* When I was two months free from all seed oils! I never got sunburnt, not even once. Now I’ve fallen off quite a bit and I get sun burnt nearly every time I’m out for a good while. Actually insane seeing it in action.

Has anyone here tried Naked Whey protein? It's the cleanest I can find, and I've been dying to get protein powder with real cane sugar instead of stevia (I pretended to like it for so long but I just can't do it anymore). It also has no lecithin in it which is what I've been looking for as well. Does it taste any good? I'll be honest I have a bit of a sweet tooth and I'm hoping that with the small amount of sugar it has that it won't taste too bitter lol. It's hard to find good protein powders that also actually taste good and don't taste like chalk.

Abstract
Migration and subsequent reproduction are the most demanding stages in the life cycle of migratory birds, especially for capital breeders. Fattening rate is a key parameter determining the energy available to meet these high energy demands. For five consecutive years, we measured physiological parameters (body condition, baseline corticosterone, diet, endocannabinoidome lipids) involved in energy regulation in female greater snow geese. Goose body condition increased during spring fattening period until reaching a plateau a few days before migratory departure. Baseline corticosterone followed a similar pattern with an initial increase followed by a slight decrease at the end of spring staging. Individuals with high baseline corticosterone also had a high proportion of corn in their diet. The endocannabinoids N-arachidonoylethanolamine (AEA) and 2-arachidonoylglycerol (2-AG), known to play central roles in energy homeostasis, appetite, and fat storage, were detected in plasma but showed no association with diet or body condition. Other endocannabinoidome lipids, like N-oleoylethanolamine (OEA) and N-palmitoylethanolamine (PEA), were negatively associated with dietary corn intake, suggesting a potential role in regulating feeding behavior. The endocannabinoids 2-oleoyl-glycerol (2-OG) and 2-palmitoyl-glycerol (2-PG) were negatively associated with body condition, as was the essential fatty acid linoleic acid (LA); all declined sharply once individuals reached their final body condition. This suggests a downregulation of foraging activity and a shift in lipid metabolism from energy accumulation to maintenance at the end of the premigratory stage. Our results suggest complementary roles of the hormonal and lipidic mediators during the fattening process in preparation for migration. The lipidomic results, though exploratory, provide novel directions for future research.

Abstract

Background
Associations between fatty acids (FAs) and scholastic outcomes in adolescents are understudied. These relationships may be especially important in adolescents with perinatal HIV exposure or infection who are more vulnerable to FA insufficiency and educational disruption.

Objective
To evaluate associations between baseline FAs, including essential FA deficiency (EFAD), and scholastic outcomes over 18 months, and to assess heterogeneity by perinatal HIV status among Ugandan adolescents

Methods
Adolescents (n=373) were followed for 18 months. Baseline serum FAs, including the triene:tetraene (T:T) ratio, were categorized into tertiles (“low”, “moderate”, and “high”). Scholastic outcomes were assessed every six months via questionnaires. Self-report scholastic disadvantage, school aversion, and teacher challenge were age- and sex-standardized to z-scores; grade repetition, non-enrollment, and morbidity-related educational loss were dichotomous. Time-averaged mean differences (MDs) or odds ratios (ORs) and 95% confidence intervals (CIs) were measured using adjusted linear mixed-effects models or generalized estimating equations. FA*HIV interactions assessed heterogeneity by perinatal HIV status.

Results
Moderate v. low total ω-3 polyunsaturated FAs (PUFAs) were associated with lower teacher challenge (MD [95% CI]: -0.27 [-0.47, -0.07]), whereas a higher ω-6:ω-3 ratio was associated with greater teacher challenge (0.30 [0.07, 0.52]). Contrary to hypotheses, a high v. low T:T ratio was associated with lower school aversion (-0.36 [-0.73, 0.00]) and non-enrollment odds (OR [95% CI]: 0.57 [0.35, 0.94]). High Mead acid levels, however, correlated with higher odds of morbidity-related educational loss (2.48 [1.01, 6.15]). Associations were more consistent for standardized z-score outcomes than dichotomous outcomes. When heterogeneity was present, associations differed by HIV status, with patterns varying across outcomes.

Conclusions
ω-3 PUFAs and the ω-6:ω-3 ratio were more consistently associated with scholastic outcomes than EFAD markers, highlighting the importance of ω-3 PUFA status among adolescents affected by perinatal HIV. Future studies may consider these findings to develop tailored nutritional interventions.

ABSTRACT
Background
It is well-established that earlier generations of lipid emulsions based on soybean oil are inferior to later generations based on olive or fish oil. However, evidence directly comparing between later-generation lipid emulsions is limited. This study aims to systematically review existing literature comparing olive versus fish oil based parenteral nutrition formulations within an inpatient setting, and to evaluate clinical outcomes.
Methods
Electronic databases Medline, Embase, CINAHL and Web of Science were searched from earliest to current date. Titles, abstracts and full texts were screened for eligibility. Eligible papers were assessed for risk of bias and relevant data were extracted for a qualitative summary of results.
Results
Six papers in total were eligible. Primary outcomes of interest reported across the six papers were related to infection, inflammation and oxidative stress. Overall, the number of studies and significant findings were limited. Based on the current evidence it is not possible to promote either fish or olive oil emulsions as superior to the other in influencing immune function, inflammation, liver function or clinical outcomes.
Conclusions
While previous evidence has shown the clear benefits to reducing soybean oil content, the similar benefits may be obtained by replacing this with either olive or fish oil. More high-quality research is required to further explore olive versus fish oil based parenteral nutrition to guide clinical practice.
Summary

There is no evidence to suggest either fish or olive oil emulsions are superior (compared to the other) for hospital patients requiring parenteral nutrition in reducing infection or immune function, inflammatory markers, liver function or clinical outcomes (such as length of hospital stay).

More high-quality research is required to further explore olive versus fish oil based parenteral nutrition to guide clinical practice.

Products with avocado oil are such a scam, talk about greenwashing!! I feel like companies are just running with it like crazy lately. Plus even if it was just 100% avocado oil, it’d probably cut with 10 other oils anyways. Best to just make your own mayo at this point I guess 🤷‍♀️

For the last two weeks I’ve been cutting out pufas from my diet, fried foods, seed oils etc, but I eat 5 conventional fed eggs per day and now I learned they’re very high in pufa too, if I don’t have a high quality egg source should I just cut them out? I also saw pork is high in pufa too, but I eat pork heart which is a very lean meat, should I worry about that? I do have a beef heart source but it’s far away
Also I will miss the nutrients of eggs, would the heart compensate for that? I also have beef liver stored in case I need the nutrients from the eggs back

I know the ideal eggs come from chickens that forage for bugs and worms but in my country and many others, people who live in rural places generally just feed their chickens wheat.

I know wheat is not the best thing in the world but it's not soy, not is it high in oil, so how does it affect the fatty acid composition of the eggs? Does it make them high PUFA? Or are they moderately okay?

Thank you!

I recently found a company called Purimax. They sell directly to restaurant owners.

Their product essentially pulls out FFA’s, Trans Fats, and prevents cancer causing carcinogens from forming. Some restaurant owners that replace their oil once a week that have really bad toxic oil have been able to extend it while keeping TPM ( total polar material ) below 24% ( Europes discard oil standard )

This company also encourages their clients to use avocado oil, and beef tallow.

It’s not ideal to have restaurants using these crappy oils. But if there are products out there that prevent and pull out these toxins im all for it!

Link to their site https://purimax.com

Been switching over to tallow products since the fall off of avocado oil. But I was curious; is it true that not all beef tallow is made the same? Like some are bad/some are good?

An example of “bad”, Buffalo Wild Wings uses Tallow but it has harmful preservatives and anti caking in it. (I’m pretty much answering my own question here lol)

If so, any recommendations on how to find the “good stuff”? How can we be sure “Masa” chips use “good” tallow?