Beef Tallow, Avocado Oil Are Edging Out Seed Oils

The company uses a co-packer in Iowa to produce the chips. Their products are sold in Woodman’s, Piggly Wiggly and other grocers in Wisconsin, and they recently inked a distribution deal with KeHe.

Teddy’s Tallow Chips is riding a wave of popularity for beef tallow, powered by a growing understanding that traditional animal fats may not deserve the bad reputation they have long held.

Add to that the increasing popularity of avocado oil in food processing, and manufacturers suddenly have two more options to consider when developing – or revising – product formulations.

Advantages of beef tallow

Beef tallow is created by rendering the suet – the nutrient-dense fat layer around the kidneys and loins – of cattle. It’s a versatile fat used in snack foods, baked goods and frozen meals.

“Because it is considered a shortening, beef tallow can be used for both savory and sweet baking processes, including crusts, breads, cakes, tortillas and many other doughs — even as a base for frosting,” says Greg Hozinsky, corporate chef for Coast Packing Co. (coastpacking.com), a supplier of beef tallow and other animal fats.

However, Hozinsky explains, the most common commercial application of beef tallow is for deep frying. It has a high smoke point – up to 450 degrees – and is durable against degradation and deterioration, which reduces the labor needed to clean equipment and results in less frequent oil changes and disposal.

“Perhaps the most advantageous property of using beef tallow, however, is the flavor and texture it provides,” Hozinsky says. “Foods fried in beef tallow are less greasy, creating a crispy exterior without the oily feel often associated with seed oils.”

Alysa Seeland, founder and CEO of Fond Regenerative (fondregenerative.com), echoes that sentiment: “Tallow also adds a delicious mouthfeel, seals in juices in meat when cooking and adds a savory flavor to vegetable dishes.”

Fond Regenerative, founded in 2015 and known for its bone broth products, launched a line of jarred beef tallow for retail sale in 2024. The line comprises Plain, Rosemary & Pink Peppercorn, Chili Pepper & Garlic, and Turmeric & Black Pepper.

Seeland explains that the company sources the suet for the tallow from the same family farms that supply the bones they use for their broth products.

“The raw suet is ground in a stainless steel grinder to ensure equal surface area, and then it is simmered in stainless steel kettles on a low heat until the tallow is ready,” Seeland says. “As a natural product, some suet has higher water content, so we simmer and strain and simmer and strain for hours until the water content reaches the low threshold. Then it is bottled in glass to preserve its purity and flavor.”

Fatworks (fatworks.com) is another manufacturer of beef tallow for home cooks – it sells retail jars of tallow made from grass-fed cattle, including an organic version, and Wagyu beef – and it supplies industrial quantities for food processors. Company co-founder David Cole says they have observed food processors who are shifting recipes from vegetable to animal fats.

“We’re seeing growing interest from brands looking to reformulate without industrialized seed oils,” Cole says. “In many cases, tallow is being brought back into products that historically used it, but had shifted away over time. Now we’re seeing that reverse.”

Tallow is not suitable for every application. It is solid at room temperature, so it does not work well in salad dressings or other products designed to be liquid. And, Cole adds, natural unprocessed beef tallow has a mild beef flavor, which makes it advantageous for savory products but perhaps not for sweeter products.

Making the switch from vegetable oils to tallow in a manufacturing environment can often be done without equipment changes, Hozinsky from Coast notes. He recommends starting with a 1:1 substitution ratio and then making small, incremental adjustments until the desired result is achieved.

In some cases, a mix of tallow and vegetable oil may work best. Coast sells blends of those oils, including tallow mixed with soy or cottonseed oil.

“Different products have unique nuances that may make them a better fit for specific applications, or more commonly, an operator’s needs and personal preferences,” Hozinsky says. “For example, in some cases, specific AV [animal-vegetable] blends may create a creamy, pourable liquid. That convenience could be more important to an operator, and it may be worth sacrificing certain qualities compared to using a traditional 100% beef tallow cube, while still improving performance over standard seed and vegetable oils.

“An AV shortening with a higher percentage of tallow that remains solid at room temperatures may still be slightly creamier, making it easier to work with in certain baking applications when creaming of product is needed,” he adds.

Dietary Guidelines boost tallow

Tallow has been used in cooking for time immemorial, but it fell out of favor in the 1970s and 1980s when research suggested saturated fats led to heart disease. But more recent long-term reviews of research have not successfully linked the two. That fact, plus a general trend of valuing “whole” foods over processed food, has led to a resurgence in interest in animal fats such as tallow.

The 2025 revision of the USDA/FDA Dietary Guidelines for Americans, which specifically touts beef tallow as a preferred cooking fat, has pushed that trend into overdrive.

“The new inverted pyramid is catching up with a movement our consumers have been following for years – a return to foundational foods,” Seeland says.

“Unlike highly processed seed oils, which have only been around for the last century or so, animal fats like tallow have always been consumed by humans,” she continues. “The revised guidelines celebrate full fats from whole foods, and I hope that will at least open up a curiosity among broader audiences.”

Cole agrees that public opinion about the nutritional value of beef tallow compared to that of processed vegetable oil is ahead of policy, and he is happy to see the new dietary guidelines start to reflect the shift.

“At the end of the day, we just hope it leads more people back to eating well, but there are still some lingering biases around fat,” Cole says. “For example, sugar-heavy cereals can make heart-healthy claims, while fats are not permitted to make those same types of claims, despite evolving science and even as the USDA guidelines begin to shift.”

Avocado oil is also hot

Beef tallow is in the headlines, but avocado oil is also growing in popularity among food processors.

For example, Popchips, a snack owned by Our Home (our-home.com), is being relaunched in June with a formula that uses 100% avocado oil instead of the seed oils currently used.

“Consumers are increasingly moving away from seed oils and toward cleaner, more recognizable ingredients, and avocado oil fits perfectly into that shift,” says Megan Osowski, vice president of marketing at Our Home. “It's a better-for-you oil that consumers know and trust.”

Osowski adds that no other changes needed to be made to Popchips’ ingredients or production processes to accommodate the switch to avocado oil.

Another example is snack food maker Jackson’s (snackjacksons.com), which switched from using coconut oil to avocado oil about five years ago. The company, founded in 2012, makes Super Veggie Straws, Sweet Potato Chips and Kettle Chips.

Jackson’s CEO James Marino explains that the company made the switch after they opened their own manufacturing facility in Wisconsin in 2021 and were able to make Sweet Potato Chips from both oils at scale. They discovered that the avocado oil version outsold the coconut oil version by four to one. Avocado oil has a clean, neutral flavor and a smooth, light texture that enhances crunch without heaviness, he says.

Consumer preference is important, of course, but so is nutritional value. Avocado oil is high in monounsaturated fats and is less refined than many conventional oils used in snack production. That aligns with the philosophy of the company founders, Megan and Scott Reamer, who wanted to create snacks made without industrialized seed oils to support the health of their son, Jackson, who was diagnosed with an autoimmune disorder.

Avocado oil also performs well in the factory, Marino says. “Avocado oil’s high smoke point and oxidative stability allow us to cook longer and more gently without the oil breaking down,” he explains. “That’s critical to our process: Cooking low and slow helps preserve the integrity of the oil and the raw ingredients, rather than rushing them at high heat where oils can degrade and create off flavors.”

The price of avocados often swings with global demand, weather conditions and harvest yields – and this year with U.S. tariffs. But avocado oil is somewhat buffered from those swings, since it is a processed product with a diverse global supply chain, Marino says.

“Ultimately, owning our manufacturing process and designing it specifically around avocado oil gives us a level of control and resilience that’s uncommon in snack manufacturing. It’s a key reason we’re able to deliver consistent products despite fluctuations in the broader avocado market,” he says.

Avocado oil has always been considered a healthy fat, but, as with beef tallow, products made with avocado oil may benefit from the revised Dietary Guidelines for Americans because avocados are specifically called out as a source of healthy fat. And in the inverted pyramid image that accompanies the new guidelines, an avocado is prominently displayed.

Beef tallow and avocado oil may have been on opposite ends of the nutrition spectrum in the old days, but in this topsy turvy world they’re neighbors. Innovative food manufacturers are taking note.