Avocado oil is becoming increasingly popular in the United States. According to a 2022 report from Technavio, “The avocado oil market size is forecasted to grow by USD 516.45 million” over the next 5 years, and SmartBrief notes that “the prevalence of avocado oil was identified as one of the 10 major food trends of 2023 by Whole Foods Market.”
There’s just one problem—a lot of the “avocado oil” we see on shelves is fake.
This is a claim made by TikTok user Sammie Mancine (@sammiemancine) in a video with over 669,000 views as of Saturday morning. But is it true?
“Want to know what I learned today? I learned that they just did a study on avocado oil and found that 82% of the oil was actually rancid or mixed with other oils such as canola oil,” she says in her video.
“I learned that there is no regulations on avocado oil, so they can kind of go rogue here. And all of this is just a great new marketing scheme,” she adds. “I love this country so much.”
Unbelievably, what Mancine is saying is largely true, though the information she uses is a bit out of date.
A 2020 study conducted by UC Davis found that, as Mancine stated, “At least 82 percent of test samples [of avocado oil] were either stale before expiration date or mixed with other oils.”
“In three cases, bottles labeled as ‘pure’ or ‘extra virgin’ avocado oil contained near 100 percent soybean oil, an oil commonly used in processed foods that’s much less expensive to produce,” an article on the study continues.
As Mancine noted, one of the reasons for this is the unregulated nature of avocado oil production. The same article states, “The Food and Drug Administration has not yet adopted ‘standards of identity’ [for avocado oil], which are basic food standards designed to protect consumers from being cheated by inferior products or confused by misleading labels.”
That said, things are getting better. UC Davis conducted a similar study in 2023 and found that “nearly 70% of private label avocado oil rancid or mixed with other oils”—a significant improvement from just a few years prior.
@sammiemancine #greenscreen #avocadooil ♬ original sound – SammieMancine
Regardless of how much the situation has improved, commenters were not too thrilled about this information.
“This is why i started cooking with beef tallow,” a user said.
“That makes sense bc half the bottles of avo oil I’ve gotten smelled bad and I couldn’t use them,” shared another.
“So are we going back to coconut oil? Butter? Ugh it never ends,” stated a third.
The Daily Dot reached out to Mancine via email.
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