R&D RADIO: Oil Analytics, Seed Oils and Adulterated Avocado Oil with Dr. Selina Wang of UC Davis

In this episode of R&D Radio, host and food scientist Adam Yee sits down with Dr. Selina Wang, chemist and Professor of Cooperative Extension at the University of California, Davis, to talk about a recent study suggesting that many store-bought products made with avocado oil may not contain 100% avocado oil.

Dr. Wang is Faculty Director of the UC Davis Olive Center and an internationally recognized expert in edible oil quality, authenticity, and chemistry. Her early studies of supermarket olive oil helped inform California's olive oil standards adopted in 2014, and in 2020 her lab published the first comprehensive evaluation of commercial avocado oil quality and purity in the United States, revealing problems with oxidation and adulteration. Her team has since followed up with a study of private label brands and, most recently, products like chips, mayonnaise, and salad dressings.

Adam and Dr. Wang trade notes scientist to scientist, covering how oil chemists tell fresh from stale and pure from adulterated, what "seed oil" really means in academic circles versus marketing, how fatty acid and sterol fingerprints expose substitutions, and what brands using avocado oil can do right now to verify what they are buying.

Listen in as they discuss:

What an edible oil chemist, or "fat chemist," actually studies when evaluating an oilHow extra virgin and refined olive oil differ, and why oxidation and purity markers matterWhat "seed oil" means to chemists versus how the term is used in consumer marketingWhy avocado oil has become a popular seed oil alternative despite costing roughly three times as muchHow UC Davis' three avocado oil studies expanded from bottled brands to private labels to finished productsHow oil is extracted from chips, mayonnaise, and dressings so it can be testedHow fatty acid and sterol fingerprints reveal substitution with high oleic sunflower or safflower oilWhy testing fatty acids alone can miss a carefully blended oilWhy relying solely on a supplier's certificate of analysis can leave brands exposedDr. Wang's practical advice for brands: test fatty acids and sterols, and treat suspiciously low prices as a red flag

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