Seed oils in Germany

What the chains fry in

These are the 25 chains we track in Germany, with what each one fries in according to our records. Open any chain for its full report card. See the full country index.

• Real fats: beef tallow, lard, butter, olive oil or coconut oil.
• In between: palm or peanut oil, a high-oleic grade, or a mix of real fat and seed oil.
• Seed oils: canola (rapeseed), soybean, sunflower or corn, or a "vegetable oil" blend.
• No fryer: the chain does not deep fry. It can still cook with oil elsewhere in the kitchen.
• Unknown: our records do not say what the chain fries in.

(estimated) means our note on that chain is hedged, so read the oil as a good guess rather than a confirmed fact. How we read these notes.

Cleanest picks

Chains that fry in real fats come first. After them come chains that mix real fats with other oils or fry in palm or peanut oil.

• L'Osteria Olive oil (estimated)
• Vapiano Olive oil (estimated)
• burgerme Palm oil (estimated)
• Ditsch Palm oil (estimated)
• Five Guys Peanut oil
• Hans im Glück Palm oil and beef tallow (estimated)

All 25 chains

Same chain, different oil

A chain can fry in one oil at home and another abroad. Of the 7 chains we can compare with the U.S., 6 show a different fryer oil in Germany. Rows where the color changes come first. 1 more chain lists the same oil in both places.

The brands that state their fryer oil in many countries are compared in Same chain, different country.

How people cook in Germany

German home cooks mostly use rapeseed oil (Rapsöl, widely reported as the most used cooking oil in German homes), sunflower oil, butter, clarified butter (Butterschmalz) and margarine, plus olive oil; pork lard (Schweineschmalz) is still eaten as a bread spread and used in some traditional cooking.

At snack stands (Imbiss), bakeries and restaurants, deep fryers usually hold a ready made frying fat or oil, which can be palm based or a refined or high oleic vegetable oil, so the answer varies by shop and is worth asking.

A 2003 Stiftung Warentest test of 13 fats and 10 oils, which the magazine has since called outdated, found that solid fats held up well after two hours at 170 degrees C, with clarified butter, palm fat and coconut fat doing especially well. Fast food chains differ, so check each chain on its own.

Reading labels

German packaged food follows EU Regulation 1169/2011, so vegetable oils are named by plant (Rapsöl, Sonnenblumenöl, Palmöl) or grouped as 'pflanzliche Öle' or 'pflanzliche Fette' with the plants named right after, and hydrogenated oils must be marked 'ganz gehärtet' (fully hydrogenated) or 'teilweise gehärtet' (partly hydrogenated).

Say it in German

Read these out loud or show your phone to your server. The first two rows are the questions to ask. The rest are the oil names you will see on menus and labels.

Tips for eating out in Germany

• At snack stands and bakeries, ask 'In welchem Öl wird das frittiert?'; if the answer is just 'Pflanzenöl' or 'Frittierfett', which does not name the plant, ask 'Welches Öl genau?' (which oil exactly?).
• Schnitzel and Bratkartoffeln are traditionally pan-fried in Butterschmalz or Schmalz, but many places now use vegetable oil or the deep fryer, so ask 'Können Sie das bitte in Butter braten?'
• Supermarkets sell butter, Butterschmalz and Schweineschmalz, so cooking your own food with them is easy.
• On packaged food, read the Zutaten (ingredients) list for Rapsöl, Sonnenblumenöl, Palmöl, Palmfett, 'pflanzliche Öle' and 'gehärtet' (hydrogenated); margarine is mostly made from plant oils.

Sources

The cooking, label and tip sections come from these pages. The chain fryer oils come from our own records.

1. Stiftung Warentest: frying fats and oils test (2003, old)
2. Regulation (EU) No 1169/2011, Annex VII, Part A (text checked on legislation.gov.uk)
3. Regulation (EU) No 1169/2011 on EUR-Lex (official EU text)

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