Restaurants ditch seed oils as beef tallow comeback spreads

A backlash that started online is now changing what restaurants pour into their fryers, and the replacement fats are usually more expensive than the seed oils they are displacing. Across the United States, chains and independents are responding to demand for “no seed oil” menus by turning to beef tallow, butter, olive oil and avocado oil.

Sweetgreen moved early. On Jan. 7, 2025, the fast-casual chain said it had removed seed oils from its menu and replaced them with extra virgin olive oil and avocado oil. It also launched four limited-time menu items in January that used seed oil-free ingredients, including Green Goddess Ranch made with seed-free oil. The shift turned a high-profile salad brand into one of the clearest examples of how health branding is changing kitchen economics.

Steak ’n Shake took the message further. In February 2025, the chain said all of its locations would use 100% all-natural beef tallow by the end of the month. Later reporting said its fries, onion rings and chicken tenders were being cooked in beef tallow in its restaurants. Blue Collar Restaurant Group, which operates in Jackson Hole, Wyoming, and Bozeman, Montana, said in 2025 that it had eliminated seed oils across its kitchens and switched to beef tallow, butter, olive oil and avocado oil.

The trend has pushed beyond restaurant counters. Reporting in 2025 said food companies were also considering beef tallow as a replacement ingredient, a sign that the debate is moving from menu copy into supply chains and procurement decisions. That matters because the fats that are getting a marketing boost are not just substitutes; they can also change cost structures, recipes and a brand’s public identity.

The fight has become political as well as nutritional. The Make America Healthy Again movement has made seed oils a talking point, and Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. has publicly pushed back on them, helping give the campaign a governmental sheen. At the same time, the 2025-2030 Dietary Guidelines for Americans, the current federal standard, say that when cooking with or adding fats, people should prioritize oils with essential fatty acids such as olive oil, while acknowledging that other options can include butter or beef tallow. The American Heart Association has kept to a different line, continuing to recommend plant-based oils such as soybean, canola and olive oil in place of saturated fats like butter, and in March 2025 highlighted research linking a daily swap of about a tablespoon of butter for plant-based oils to a lower risk of premature death.

The result is a fryer-level referendum on nutrition claims, where ideology, branding and federal guidance now collide over what counts as healthy fat.