The Great Avocado Oil Scam: The Industry Is Lying to Your Face
- Joe Kool
- 4 days ago
- 3 min read
The health food industry loves to market "clean, better-for-you" alternatives, but independent researchers at UC Davis just pulled back the curtain. Their landmark testing exposed that the vast majority of food companies charging premium prices for "Avocado Oil" products are quietly serving you cheap, inflammatory soybean, canola, and safflower oil instead.
This isn't an "accident"—it's deceptive corporate greed. Here are the exact receipts, including the brands that failed lab purity tests and the few that actually delivered what you paid for.
If you’ve been paying a premium price at the grocery store to avoid processed seed oils, you are being actively scammed.
The health food industry loves to market "clean, better-for-you" alternatives, but independent researchers at UC Davis just pulled back the curtain. Their landmark testing exposed that the vast majority of food companies charging premium prices for "Avocado Oil" products are quietly serving you cheap, inflammatory soybean, canola, and safflower oil instead.
This isn't an "accident"—it's deceptive corporate greed. Here are the exact receipts, including the brands that failed lab purity tests and the few that actually delivered what you paid for.
The Hall of Shame: Brands That Failed Lab Purity Testing
In the UC Davis study, researchers tested packaged foods across the market claiming to be made with avocado oil. 89% of the products failed purity standards, revealing significant seed oil adulteration.
Mayonnaises & Sauces (71% to 100% Failure Rate)
Every single U.S.-manufactured avocado oil mayonnaise tested failed. The extracted oil profile matched cheap seed oils, NOT pure avocado:
Chosen Foods Classic Mayo & Vegan Mayo
Primal Kitchen Real Mayonnaise with Avocado Oil
Sir Kensington’s Avocado Oil Mayonnaise
BetterBody Foods 100% Avocado Oil Mayo
Salad Dressings (100% Failure Rate)
Literally every single avocado oil dressing tested failed lab purity benchmarks:
Chosen Foods Lemon Garlic & Zesty Italian
Primal Kitchen Avocado Oil & Vinegar Vinaigrette & Italian Dressing
Briannas Classic Balsamic (labeled 100% avocado)
Sprouts Balsamic Vinaigrette with Avocado Oil
Chips & Snacks (93% Failure Rate)
Out of 28 avocado oil chip products tested, 26 failed completely. They took your money for "seed-oil-free" chips and fried them in cheap oil blends anyway:
Boulder Canyon Avocado Oil Classic Sea Salt Kettle Chips
Siete Kettle Cooked Sea Salt & Maiz Sea Salt Corn Tortilla Chips
Kettle Brand Sea Salt with Pink Peppercorn & Apple Cider Vinegar (Avocado Oil)
Jackson’s Avocado Oil Sweet Potato Chips & Kettle Cooked Sea Salt
Bettergoods (Walmart Brand) Hatch Chile Tortilla Chips (labeled 100% avocado)
Sprouts Organic Sea Salt & Lime & Kettle Style 100% Avocado Oil Chips
Good Health Kettle Style Avocado Oil Sea Salt Chips
Sensible Portions Garden Veggie Straws with Avocado Oil
The Wall of Honor: The Rare Products That Passed
Out of 54 total processed products tested, only a microscopic handful passed purity screening.
The Pass List
Grove AvoYeah! Mayo Sauce & Garlic Aioli (The ONLY avocado mayo/sauce in the entire study to pass)
Chosen Foods & Marianne's (For their 100% Pure Liquid Bottled Oil ONLY—not their packaged dressings or mayo)
Note on Olive Oil: When researchers ran the exact same tests on processed foods labeled with Olive Oil, brands like Graza, Bragg, California Olive Ranch, and Lay's Olive Oil Crisps passed overwhelmingly. Why? Because olive oil has legal regulations and strict enforcement—avocado oil currently does not.
How Big Food Is Getting Away With Fraud
How can corporate entities print "100% Pure Avocado Oil" or "Made with Avocado Oil" right on the front of the bag when it’s filled with seed oil?
Massive Profit Margins: Real extra-virgin avocado oil costs 3x to 5x more to extract than industrial canola or soybean oil. By diluting bulk orders with seed oil, manufacturers pocket huge profit margins while charging you a premium price.
Co-Packer Scapegoating: Brands claim they buy their bulk oil from third-party brokers "in good faith." They lazily refuse to run independent lab tests on incoming raw materials, letting adulterated bulk oil pass straight to the consumer.
Zero Regulatory Oversight: The FDA has NO legally enforced Standard of Identity for avocado oil. Because there are no mandatory government spot-checks, these companies know there are zero federal fines or legal consequences for selling fake oil.
Bottom Line: Stop Getting Robbed
The rule of thumb moving forward is simple: Do not trust front-of-package marketing.
If you want pure avocado oil, buy 100% pure liquid bottled oil in dark glass from lab-verified brands. If you're buying chips, dressings, or mayonnaise claiming to use avocado oil, assume it's cut with seed oil unless the brand provides independent, batch-level lab verification. In my book A Delicious Suicide I show you how to make it. Takes less than 5 minutes, and you know what's in it.
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