Seed oils in Italy

What the chains fry in

These are the 18 chains we track in Italy, 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

No chain we track in Italy fries in real fats alone. These come closest: they mix real fats with other oils, or fry in palm or peanut oil.

• America Graffiti Sunflower and high-oleic sunflower oil (estimated)
• Five Guys Peanut oil
• Starbucks Sunflower and palm oil (estimated)

All 18 chains

Same chain, different oil

A chain can fry in one oil at home and another abroad. Of the 5 chains we can compare with the U.S., 4 show a different fryer oil in Italy. 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 Italy

Olive oil is the most common cooking fat in Italy, with butter or lard (strutto) used instead in some recipes and regions, butter especially in the north.

Italy's consumer association Altroconsumo recommends olive oil, peanut oil (olio di arachide) or high oleic sunflower oil for frying and advises against regular sunflower and corn oil, but that is advice, not a survey of what kitchens actually use.

Many restaurants and fry stands do not say what they use, and the common catch-all term is 'olio di semi' (literally seed oil), often sunflower, peanut or a mix ('olio di semi vari'), so it varies and is worth asking.

McDonald's and KFC Italy name sunflower and rapeseed blends for their fryers, Burger King Italy's ingredient labels show its fries and nuggets arrive pre-fried in sunflower or rapeseed oil but do not name the restaurant fryer oil, and Five Guys uses peanut oil.

Reading labels

Italian labels follow EU Regulation 1169/2011 (Annex VII): refined vegetable oils and fats can be grouped as 'oli vegetali' or 'grassi vegetali' only if each plant is named right after (usually in brackets, for example 'oli vegetali (girasole, colza)'), sometimes followed by 'in proporzione variabile' (in varying proportions), and hydrogenated ones must say so ('totalmente idrogenato' or 'parzialmente idrogenato').

You may see 'alto oleico' (high oleic) after sunflower oil, and 'senza olio di palma' (palm free) claims are common.

Say it in Italian

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 Italy

• Ask 'Con che olio friggete?' and listen for 'olio di semi' (seed oil, often sunflower), 'olio di arachide' (peanut oil) or 'olio d'oliva'. A vague 'olio di semi' answer still means seed oil.
• Order dishes cooked in olive oil or butter, such as many pasta sauces, and grilled meat or fish (alla griglia, ai ferri), over 'fritto misto' or anything 'impanato' (breaded). Cotoletta alla milanese is traditionally fried in butter, but many kitchens use oil, so ask ('Nel burro o nell'olio?').
• On packaged food the plant must be named, so look for 'olio di girasole', 'olio di semi di soia' or 'olio di palma'. 'Senza olio di palma' (palm free) products often swap in sunflower or another seed oil, so palm free is not the same as seed oil free.
• Fried street food (arancini, supplì, panzerotti, pizza fritta) is often fried in seed oil such as sunflower or peanut, though some vendors use olive oil, so ask what they use.

Sources

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

1. Olio per friggere (Altroconsumo, Italian consumer association)
2. Italian cuisine (Wikipedia: olive oil most common, replaced in some areas by butter or lard)
3. Strutto (Treccani encyclopedia: lard as a direct cooking fat)
4. Regulation (EU) No 1169/2011, Annex VII (UK copy of the same text, read for the oil grouping rule)
5. Regulation (EU) No 1169/2011, official EU text (not opened in this session)

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