See what laboratory tests found inside bottles labeled as avocado oil.
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A bottle can list an oil, grade, origin, and price. Laboratory measurements can test whether its chemical profile matches avocado oil.
Compare its extra-virgin label with the study result and the details a shopper could see.
Follow each dot against the range observed among the 16 samples classified as pure.
Select points to see where every sample sits by palmitoleic and linoleic acid.
See where visible shopping signals overlap across the three study results.
See what laboratory tests found inside bottles labeled as avocado oil.
A label can name the oil, grade, origin, and price. It cannot show the mix of fatty acids and plant compounds inside. UC Davis researchers measured those chemical fingerprints.
16matched the avocado-oil group
3had an unresolved profile
3were confirmed soybean oil
Filter by the grade printed on the bottle, then pick a sample. The card below puts the label details beside the study result.
Confirmed as soybean oil
The study found soybean oil at or near 100% of the sample.
How to read this: The sample codes replace brand names. Choosing a bottle updates every view below. Results describe these bottles when tested, not products on shelves today.
Each row shows one measured compound. The pale band is the full range among bottles classified as pure in this study. The dot is EV6.
What changes with the control: Choosing another bottle moves the dots and updates the count. Fatty-acid and sterol percentages use different totals, so compare each dot with its own row.
Move right for more palmitoleic acid. Move up for more linoleic acid. Select any point to carry that bottle through the page.
How to read this: Nearby dots have similar values for these two compounds only. The study used fatty acids, sterols, vitamin E forms, and triacylglycerols together.
| Sample | Label grade | Palmitoleic acid | Linoleic acid | Study result |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| EV1 | Extra virgin | 6.9% | 19.2% | Matched the avocado-oil group |
| EV2 | Extra virgin | 6.5% | 15.2% | Matched the avocado-oil group |
| EV3 | Extra virgin | 0.1% | 54.4% | Confirmed as soybean oil |
| EV4 | Extra virgin | 6.4% | 17% | Matched the avocado-oil group |
| EV5 | Extra virgin | 6.4% | 17.5% | Matched the avocado-oil group |
| EV6 | Extra virgin | 0.1% | 55.4% | Confirmed as soybean oil |
| EV7 | Extra virgin | 6.6% | 13.4% | Matched the avocado-oil group |
| R1 | Refined | 1.7% | 15.2% | Different profile, unresolved cause |
| R2 | Refined | 5.8% | 12.2% | Matched the avocado-oil group |
| R3 | Refined | 4.2% | 16% | Matched the avocado-oil group |
| R4 | Refined | 6.8% | 12% | Matched the avocado-oil group |
| R5 | Refined | 6.5% | 12.8% | Matched the avocado-oil group |
| R6 | Refined | 8.6% | 10.9% | Matched the avocado-oil group |
| R7 | Refined | 5.2% | 13% | Matched the avocado-oil group |
| R8 | Refined | 5.1% | 10.9% | Matched the avocado-oil group |
| R9 | Refined | 5.2% | 15% | Matched the avocado-oil group |
| U1 | No grade stated | 7.4% | 9.8% | Matched the avocado-oil group |
| U2 | No grade stated | 7.2% | 14.7% | Matched the avocado-oil group |
| U3 | No grade stated | 7.4% | 13.9% | Matched the avocado-oil group |
| U4 | No grade stated | 2% | 17.4% | Different profile, unresolved cause |
| U5 | No grade stated | 0.6% | 15.4% | Different profile, unresolved cause |
| U6 | No grade stated | 0.1% | 54.7% | Confirmed as soybean oil |
Each point is the study price per fluid ounce. Samples are grouped by the laboratory result, not by what a shopper could see.
The cheapest sample was pure-classified. R5 cost $0.25 per fluid ounce. The most expensive, EV7 at $2.35, was also pure-classified.
Two extra-virgin labels hid confirmed soybean oil. EV3 cost $0.65 and EV6 cost $0.49 per fluid ounce.
Dark glass did not settle the question. It held nine pure-classified, two unresolved, and one confirmed sample.
Select a grade to return to those bottles.
What this can show: Visible shopping signals overlap across results in this small 2020 sample. They cannot test a bottle or tell you what is sold now.
The study shows why the contents of an oil cannot be judged from price, packaging, or label grade alone. It does not identify brands here, represent every bottle sold in 2020, or describe the market in 2026.
Why this exists
Did visible shopping signals such as price, label grade, and packaging line up with the laboratory profiles of 22 avocado-oil samples, and which measured compounds distinguished the confirmed soybean-oil samples?
Choose any anonymous bottle, compare seven measured compounds with the range observed among pure-classified samples, select points in a two-marker plot, and compare prices and label grades across study results.
Method and limits
I selected the October 6 avocado-oil authenticity release from the allowlisted TidyTuesday catalog and used only its bottled-oil table. The table comes from Hilary Green and Selina Wang's 2020 UC Davis study of 22 avocado-oil samples sold in the United States. The open-access paper is licensed under Creative Commons Attribution 4.0. I did not use the release's separate 2026 processed-food table because that article uses a more restrictive noncommercial license.
I pinned the curated CSV to TidyTuesday commit 78474f0d3496a1f855deeceb63e250f494cbe938 and retrieved it on October 6, 2026. The 4,445-byte file has SHA-256 46290c6b77a1c7662e28ae69ab370f2ceee570a064c2ebf3021457c5ee06a899. The reproducible Python reducer verifies the exact hash, byte count, 22 anonymous sample codes, and expected classification counts before emitting a 7,842-byte browser snapshot with SHA-256 e1a4ed1f4dbc766a32da126e897d0d3f627ad619a4fd5d446a3ecbd136b1451b. The page imports that snapshot and makes no runtime request.
The project keeps the study's three confirmed soybean-oil samples separate from three unresolved profiles. The paper says the unresolved differences might reflect natural avocado variation, processing, or high-oleic sunflower or safflower oil, so the interface does not call them adulterated. Seven fatty-acid and sterol markers are shown directly. Each comparison band is the observed minimum-to-maximum range among the 16 samples classified as pure, not a regulatory standard or a new classifier. The two-marker view plots palmitoleic and linoleic acid because the confirmed samples separate clearly on both measurements.
I audited the curated fields against the paper before building. The per-sample oxidation mapping could not be reconciled with the curator's own count note and was excluded rather than turned into a public claim. Prices, packaging, origin, grade, and chemical measurements were retained. The 22 bottles were not a representative market sample, brand names are not shown, and products may have changed since 2020. The results cannot tell a visitor what is in a current bottle, measure health effects, or establish why a manufacturer or supplier produced a mismatched sample.