Most avocado oil chips and dressings aren't avocado oil, a UC Davis study found - now come the lawsuits

A UC Davis study found 89% of 'avocado oil' chips, mayo and dressing don't match real avocado oil - and three lawsuits have followed.

Emily Harper

September 2, 2026

A UC Davis lab ran fatty acid and sterol testing on 27 products that list avocado oil as their only oil — chips, mayonnaise, salad dressing — and 48 of 54 samples came back chemically inconsistent with real avocado oil. That's 89%. Three companies are now being sued over it, a fourth is under state investigation, and none of this is UC Davis's first time finding the same thing.

The study

Researchers led by Selina Wang, a UC Davis Professor of Cooperative Extension in food science, bought 37 products — 27 labeled as pure avocado oil, plus 10 olive oil products as a control — from stores and online retailers, testing two production lots of each. The results, published in Applied Food Research in July 2026, broke down by category:

The method: fatty acid and sterol profiles are essentially a chemical fingerprint, consistent for a given oil regardless of brand. The lab allowed a 10% margin for natural variation from avocado variety, growing region and ripeness, then flagged anything outside that range as inconsistent with pure avocado oil. To rule out an innocent explanation, they also ran frying and emulsification experiments confirming that normal processing doesn't shift the fingerprint on its own. The fatty acid profiles that showed up instead matched cheaper refined oils — canola, soybean, sunflower and safflower, oils that cost a fraction of what avocado oil does. One sample was essentially 100% soybean oil sold as avocado oil.

Named as failing at least one lot, per the study's own reporting: Boulder Canyon, Kettle Brand, Siete's kettle-cooked and Maiz Corn Tortilla chips, Jackson's chips, Sir Kensington's mayo, BetterBody Foods mayo, Sprouts' store brand, and Chosen Foods' and Primal Kitchen's mayo and dressings. A smaller list passed at least one lot: Frito-Lay's Simply Tostitos Avocado Oil Tortilla Chips, LesserEvil Moonions Onion Rings, and Grove's AvoYeah! mayo and aioli, which passed both lots tested.

The lawsuits

Three separate class actions have followed, all citing the UC Davis data directly.

Utz Brands (Boulder Canyon) is facing two. Schultz v. Utz Brands, Inc. (Case No. 1:26-cv-04969, E.D.N.Y.), filed August 13, 2026, alleges the avocado oil in Boulder Canyon Avocado Oil Classic Sea Salt chips was substituted or diluted. A second suit, Hunter v. Utz Brands, Inc. (E.D. La.), followed August 24 in New Orleans, alleging the same thing and pointing to the price gap between avocado-oil-labeled chips and conventional ones as evidence customers paid a real premium for something they didn't get. Utz hasn't commented on either case.

Campbell's (Kettle Brand) was sued August 18 in Heiland v. The Campbell's Company (Case No. 1:26-cv-06598-EPG, E.D. Cal.) over Kettle Brand Avocado Oil Sea Salt with a Hint of Pink Peppercorn chips. Campbell's has declined to comment on pending litigation.

Chosen Foods is dealing with the most pressure of the four. It already had a separate 2025 suit over "Non-GMO" label claims, and now faces a second: Treasure v. Chosen Foods, LLC (S.D. Cal.), filed by Wolf Popper LLP in August 2026, alleging its "100% pure avocado oil" claims are false across its oil, mayo, salad dressing and marinade lines. "Our complaint alleges that these products did not contain 100% pure avocado oil as advertised," Wolf Popper partner Phil Black said. Separately — and this is a regulatory action, not a class action — Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton issued civil investigative demands on August 20 to Chosen Foods, Primal Kitchen (owned by Kraft Heinz) and Siete Foods (owned by PepsiCo) over potential state deceptive-trade-practices violations. Chosen Foods disputes the underlying finding: "A recent UC Davis study suggests that two of our mayos and two of our dressings contain seed oils, which is simply not true... We never add seed oils of any kind," the company told the Texas AG's office.

This isn't UC Davis's first time

This is the lab's third avocado oil investigation since 2020, and the numbers have gotten worse each time:

• 2020: 22 samples tested, 82% rancid before their expiration date or mixed with other oils. Only two brands verified 100% pure: Chosen Foods and Marianne's Avocado Oil, both made in Mexico. Three bottles labeled "pure" or "extra virgin" turned out to be close to 100% soybean oil.
• 2023: 36 private-label products from 19 U.S. and Canadian retailers, roughly 70% failing purity or quality standards.
• 2026: 89% of the 54 samples tested this time.

Worth noting: Chosen Foods was one of the two brands that came back clean in 2020, and publicly applauded Codex's 2024 avocado oil standard (below). In this round, both lots of its mayo and both lots of its dressing failed.

Why there's no legal definition of "avocado oil"

Olive oil has had an international purity standard since 1981. Avocado oil didn't get one until the Codex Alimentarius Commission added it to the Standard for Named Vegetable Oils at its 47th session on November 25, 2024 — and Codex standards aren't automatically U.S. law. In the FDA's own food regulations, there's still no standard of identity that legally defines what has to be in a bottle for the label to say "avocado oil." No standard means nothing specific to test a bottle against in court beyond a company's own marketing claims — which is exactly the gap UC Davis's fatty-acid fingerprinting was built to close, and exactly what these lawsuits are now trying to enforce after the fact.

What to actually do with this

None of this means avocado oil itself is unsafe — canola, soybean, sunflower and safflower oil are all approved food oils. The issue is paying an avocado-oil premium for something that isn't avocado oil, and having no easy way to check which is which yourself; fatty acid and sterol testing isn't something you can do by looking at a label. Until (or unless) the U.S. adopts its own enforceable standard, the products named above as failing at least one lot are worth treating with real skepticism, and the handful that passed both lots — like Grove's AvoYeah! line — are the closest thing to a verified track record that currently exists.

Where Tallow fits

A "100% avocado oil" claim on a package is a promise, not a test result — and as this study shows, four different companies are now facing lawsuits over exactly that gap between the two. Tallow grades products against the lab data and Seed Oil Free Certification that actually exists for them, not the ingredient panel's marketing language, so a swapped-in seed oil doesn't get to hide behind a "pure avocado oil" label.

Read the label. Then check it against something that isn't the label.

This article describes ongoing litigation and a regulatory investigation; none of the allegations against Utz Brands, Campbell's, or Chosen Foods have been proven or decided in court, and each company disputes or has not commented on the claims against it. This is not medical, legal, or financial advice. Primary sources: UC Davis — "Most Avocado Oil Chips and Dressings Are Adulterated, Study Finds", Bakery&Snacks — lawsuit coverage, Wolf Popper LLP — Chosen Foods complaint, Texas Attorney General's office — Chosen Foods/Primal Kitchen/Siete investigation, and 21 CFR Part 169.