El Pollo Loco publishes no ingredient lists, but the footer of their own nutrition guide states plainly that soybean oil is used for cooking and preparing menu items in their restaurants, with no exceptions named. Their fresh-preparation claims are marketing copy rather than a verifiable disclosure, so only the seed oil axis is scored with real confidence.
Rated 2026-09-02 on seed_oil only. El Pollo Loco publishes no ingredient statements anywhere - their sole nutrition document, https://www.elpolloloco.com/content/pdfs/epl_web_nutrition_guide_mod_4_2026_hr.pdf, is a calorie table plus a Big-9 allergen grid, and the word "ingredient" appears in it twice, both in footer boilerplate. But that same footer carries an unambiguous first-party statement: "Please keep in mind Soybean Oil is used for cooking and preparing menu items in our restaurants." It names the oil, it is not an allergen checkbox, and it carves out no exceptions, so this is scored all rather than some. Nothing on the site addresses swapping oils on request. Additives left null - there is no ingredient list to check. Nova scored at low confidence from marketing copy on /our-story/: "fresh, never frozen, fire-grilled chicken", guacamole "hand-smashed, every single day". That is a claim, not a disclosure.