Seed Oil Tracker · Annual Data Report

The State of Seed Oils in American Fast Food, 2026

Name: The State of Seed Oils in American Fast Food 2026
Creator: Seed Oil Tracker
License: https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/

First annual report. Every number below comes from the Seed Oil Tracker dataset: 635 major US chains, 60,983 menu items, each with an estimated PUFA (seed oil) value built from published nutrition data and disclosed cooking oils. Free to cite with attribution (CC BY 4.0). Methodology.

The headline numbers

81% of chains (515 of 635) average more than 4g of seed oil per menu item, the amount many in this community treat as a full day's budget.
The average menu item across all 60,983 items carries an estimated 7.8g of seed oil.
Of the 634 chains with cooking oil intel, 93% use at least one seed oil (soybean, canola, vegetable blend, sunflower, corn, or rice bran).
Just 4 chains are verified fully seed oil free.

Grades across 635 chains

Grade A (under 4g avg)120

Grade B (4 to 6g)133

Grade C (6 to 8g)148

Grade D (8 to 12g)130

Grade F (over 12g)104

A grade reflects the chain's average estimated PUFA per menu item.

What America actually fries in

Chains mentioning each fat in their disclosed or researched cooking oils (a chain using a blend counts in each). Red bars are seed oils, green are not.

Soybean oil (seed oil)543

Canola oil (seed oil)276

Generic vegetable oil (seed oil)147

Butter122

Beef tallow or animal fat77

Olive oil66

Palm oil62

Sunflower oil (seed oil)39

Peanut oil34

Coconut oil31

Corn oil (seed oil)13

Avocado oil4

Rice bran oil (seed oil)2

Sugarcane oil (Zero Acre)1

The 10 cleanest chains of 2026

1. sweetFrog A 0.1g avg
2. Kung Fu Tea A 0.5g avg
3. Ziggi's Coffee A 0.6g avg
4. Yogurtland A 0.6g avg
5. Menchie's A 0.7g avg
6. Bahama Buck's A 0.8g avg
7. Dutch Bros Coffee A 0.8g avg
8. Gong cha A 0.9g avg
9. Pinkberry A 0.9g avg
10. Dick's Drive-In A 0.9g avg

The 10 heaviest chains of 2026

1. Guthrie's F 41.5g avg
2. Nothing Bundt Cakes F 31.1g avg
3. Ike's Love & Sandwiches F 30.8g avg
4. Beef 'O' Brady's F 28.3g avg
5. Lou Malnati's F 27.9g avg
6. Krispy Krunchy Chicken F 27.8g avg
7. Detroit Wing Company F 27.2g avg
8. Straw Hat Pizza F 27.2g avg
9. Nancy's Pizza F 26.9g avg
10. Rosati's Pizza F 26.4g avg

Cite this report

Seed Oil Tracker, "The State of Seed Oils in American Fast Food, 2026", seedoiltracker.com/state-of-seed-oils-2026. Data CC BY 4.0. The full dataset is a free download, and the live numbers are always at the Seed Oil Index.