Edible avocado oil is considered a healthy product. However, its high production costs make it susceptible to adulteration. It did not help that regulations for processed avocado oils were uncommon compared to those for other vegetable oils: just in 2021, a non-mandatory standard was approved in Mexico in an effort to guarantee the authenticity of avocado oil (NMX-F-811-SCFI).
It is a common practice for producers to market avocado oil mixed with other lower-priced oils as unadulterated products. Food fraud can also pose serious health risks and have severe consumer consequences.
Avocado Oil Needs a Global Purity Standard
As the leader in producing and exporting avocado oil, Mexico recently chaired a working group with the United States in Codex Alimentarius to develop a global purity standard for this product. This standard was approved and included in the Standard for Named Vegetable Oils CXS-210-1999. The reported standards adjust natural variances while minimizing adulteration.
The Mexican and Codex standards report ranges for fatty acid profiles of avocado oil. Fatty acids help determine authenticity because the patterns of these compounds do not change in this product, even if different extraction methods are employed.
In other words, an extra virgin and a refined sample of avocado oil may have different compositions regarding some health-promoting molecules. Still, the proportion of their fatty acids will remain similar.
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Risks of Adulteration
Recently, scientists at Tecnologico de Monterrey analyzed some Mexican brands of avocado oil. Only a few samples complied with the NMX-F-811-SCFI and CXS-210-1999 standards.
The brands’ names are coded in Table 1, except for those samples that fully complied with the standards.
*REF stands for refined, EXV stands for extra virgin, Y1 stands for year one (2021), and Y2 stands for year two (2023).
Three bottles from different batch numbers were tested for each sample, and the mean values were used to check for compliance with the standards of fatty acids. Some brands are repeated in Y1 and Y2.
Five other samples, which were declared blends of avocado oil with oils from different sources, were also analyzed.
The comparison between the allegedly pure samples and the declared blends revealed something consistent with what scientists from the University of Davis reported about American brands of avocado oil: the samples that did not comply with the standards of fatty acids might have been adulterated with high-oleic canola oil and safflower oil, which also contains significant amounts of oleic acid.
Tecnologico de Monterrey is currently analyzing some other American brands to check their compliance with the new standards. Hopefully, these findings will raise awareness of consumer safety and loyal competition within the edible oil industry.
Article courtesy of Luis Martín Marin-Obispo, Arturo A. Mayorga-Martínez, Diana Jessica Obispo-Fortunato, Jorge Abraham Clorio-Carrillo, Verónica Patiño-González, and Carmen Hernández-Brenes.