We checked 743 grocery products for seed oils — canola, soybean, sunflower, safflower, corn, rapeseed, and others. 34.1% of all products contain at least one seed oil.
Which seed oils appear most frequently in American grocery products? We counted every occurrence across 743 products:
| Seed Oil | Products Containing | % of All Products |
|---|---|---|
| rapeseed oil | 55 | 7.4% |
| corn starch | 53 | 7.1% |
| sunflower oil | 51 | 6.9% |
| canola oil | 49 | 6.6% |
| corn syrup | 44 | 5.9% |
| corn | 29 | 3.9% |
| palm oil | 29 | 3.9% |
| palm oil and fat | 28 | 3.8% |
| retinyl palmitate | 25 | 3.4% |
| modified corn starch | 23 | 3.1% |
| palm kernel oil | 22 | 3.0% |
| palm kernel oil and fat | 21 | 2.8% |
Which grocery stores have the highest proportion of products containing seed oils?
| Store | Products Scored | With Seed Oils | % With Seed Oils |
|---|---|---|---|
| Aldi | 63 | 30 | 47.6% |
| Target | 227 | 81 | 35.7% |
| Walmart | 251 | 83 | 33.1% |
| Costco | 101 | 33 | 32.7% |
Seed oils are vegetable oils extracted from seeds using industrial processing — typically involving high heat, chemical solvents (hexane), and deodorization. The most common seed oils in processed food are canola (rapeseed), soybean, sunflower, safflower, corn, and cottonseed oil. They're used because they're cheap and have a neutral flavor.
Debate about seed oils has intensified in recent years. Critics point to their high omega-6 fatty acid content and potential for oxidation during processing. Proponents note they're FDA-approved and widely used. Our data doesn't take a position — we flag them so consumers can make informed choices.
Finding seed-oil-free products is difficult because seed oils appear in 34.1% of grocery products — often in items you wouldn't expect, like bread, crackers, and yogurt. The CheckIt AI app scans any product's ingredient list and instantly flags all seed oils.
Download CheckIt AI and scan any product's ingredient list with your phone camera. No barcode needed — our real-time visual AI reads ingredients directly.
Download CheckIt AI Free →This study analyzed 743 grocery products available in US stores. Each product's full ingredient list was scored 0-100 by CheckIt AI's ingredient analysis engine, which flags additives, seed oils, allergens, and ingredients banned or restricted in other countries. Scores are based on ingredient safety data from FDA, EFSA, and peer-reviewed research. Products were sourced from OpenFoodFacts, USDA FoodData Central, and the CheckIt scanning database. Data current as of March 2026.
APA: CheckIt AI. (2026-03-05). The Seed Oil Census — CheckIt AI. Retrieved from https://getcheck.it/study/seed-oil-report
Link: https://getcheck.it/study/seed-oil-report
Embed: <a href="https://getcheck.it/study/seed-oil-report">The Seed Oil Census — CheckIt AI — CheckIt AI</a>
CheckIt AI. (2026). "Seed Oil Census: 34.1% of Grocery Products Contain Seed Oils | CheckIt AI". Climaverse PBC. Retrieved from https://getcheck.it/study/seed-oil-report"Seed Oil Census: 34.1% of Grocery Products Contain Seed Oils | CheckIt AI." CheckIt AI, Climaverse PBC, 2026-03-05. https://getcheck.it/study/seed-oil-report.<a href="https://getcheck.it/study/seed-oil-report">Seed Oil Census: 34.1% of Grocery Products Contain Seed Oils | CheckIt AI — CheckIt AI</a>@misc{checkit2026studyseedoilreport,
title = {Seed Oil Census: 34.1% of Grocery Products Contain Seed Oils | CheckIt AI},
author = {CheckIt AI},
year = {2026},
publisher = {Climaverse PBC},
url = {https://getcheck.it/study/seed-oil-report},
note = {Retrieved 2026-03-05}
}