Seed oils in the United Kingdom

What the chains fry in

These are the 246 chains we track in the United Kingdom, 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

These chains fry in real fats.

• Caffe Concerto Olive oil
• Cake Box Butter
• Crepeaffaire Butter
• Flat Iron Beef tallow
• Harry Ramsden's Beef tallow
• Hawksmoor Beef tallow
• Papa's Fish and Chips Beef tallow
• PAUL Butter
• Pizza Union Olive oil (estimated)
• Popeyes Beef tallow (estimated)
• The Real Greek Olive oil
• Tomahawk Steakhouse Beef tallow

18 more in-between chains are in the full table below.

All 246 chains

Same chain, different oil

A chain can fry in one oil at home and another abroad. Of the 20 chains we can compare with the U.S., 14 show a different fryer oil in the United Kingdom. Rows where the color changes come first. 6 more chains list 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 the United Kingdom

Rapeseed oil (what Americans call canola), sunflower oil and olive oil are the usual home cooking oils, with butter widely used and beef dripping or lard still used by some cooks for roast potatoes and chips.

Fish and chip shops traditionally fried in beef dripping or lard, and reports say vegetable oils (such as palm, rapeseed or peanut oil) now predominate, so shops vary and some still use dripping.

Big chains that publish their oil mostly use sunflower and rapeseed blends (McDonald's, KFC and Wendy's, for example), while Popeyes UK says its blend includes beef tallow, Five Guys uses peanut oil, and Burger King UK does not name its oil. Brands can also switch between sunflower and rapeseed depending on supply, so a label or menu may list both.

Reading labels

Great Britain kept the EU rule (Regulation 1169/2011, Annex VII): refined vegetable oils and fats may be grouped as 'vegetable oils' or 'vegetable fats' only if the plant sources are listed right after, for example 'vegetable oils (sunflower, rapeseed)', optionally followed by 'in varying proportions'.

Hydrogenated ones must say 'fully hydrogenated' or 'partly hydrogenated'.

Say it in English

English works here. The first two rows are ways to ask the kitchen. Below them are the oil names, with the local word where it differs from American English.

Oil names that are spelled the same as in American English are left out.

Tips for eating out in the United Kingdom

• 'Rapeseed oil' is canola. Along with sunflower it is the oil you will see most on UK ingredient lists and menus.
• 'Vegetable oils (sunflower, rapeseed in varying proportions)' means the mix of the two can change from batch to batch, so you cannot tell how much of each you are getting. Both are seed oils.
• At a chip shop ask 'Is it dripping or vegetable oil?'. Dripping is beef fat rather than a seed oil, but shops vary and many now fry in vegetable oil, such as palm or rapeseed oil.
• Many pub and chain chips are fried in sunflower or rapeseed oil (JD Wetherspoon's chip ingredients list sunflower oil), so ask, or swap the chips for a jacket potato or salad with butter or olive oil.

Sources

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

1. Regulation (EU) No 1169/2011, Annex VII, as kept in UK law (legislation.gov.uk)
2. Fish and chips (Wikipedia, summarising press reports on dripping versus vegetable oil)

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