Which fried snack brand uses the worst oil?

I want to get 1 thing first out of the way. My blog is not meant to shame any company or products, but just to nudge people in the right direction. All the companies listed below employ people and provide livelihood to their employees and families and I respect that.

However, you can choose your health with your wallet. This post is meant to encourage all of you, my lovely readers, to start turning over your snack packets and reading those labels.

The products and their oils

Let’s first look at all the oils used (in no particular order) before discussing the worst product/oil I found in the market.

Oil #1: Vegetable Oil

Let’s start looking at the products one by one:

Haldiram’s

Shall we start with the famous Haldirams? What oil do they use to fry their products?

Oil used: Vegetable oil (Cotton seed, corn and Palm Olein)

Would that be just for the one product above? Let’s look at another product from Haldirams.

Same here – Vegetable oil, it is.

What does vegetable oil mean? Are there any vegetables involved?? Not, really… Time magazine, in a report on oils, states that: “Vegetable oil is guaranteed to be highly processed. It’s called ‘vegetable’ so that the manufacturers can substitute whatever commodity oil they want—soy, corn, cottonseed, canola—without having to print a new label.”

Adarsh

Here’s Adarsh brand using vegetable oil…

If you find any type of vegetable oils that says “expeller-pressed”, that is preferred because it is a mechanical way of pressing and extracting the oil (as our ancestors have been doing all along). Mass-market oils generally are extracted with solvents such as hexane. These oils then undergo harsh treatment to remove the solvent.

After this, the refining process happens, which include dewaxing, degumming, neutralization of the free fatty acids, bleaching, and steam deodorization.

I am sympathetic to the manufacturer’s predicament. They could use unrefined oils, but unrefined oils have shorter shelf life and have higher probability to burn when you expose them to high temperatures.

However, the food industry can make strides in the right direction when pushed (e.g. going organic, preservative-free, etc). It will be great to find Namkeen products that use oils that are not RBD. RBD is an acronym, which stands for Refined, Bleached and Deodorized (E.g. Specialty unrefined or cold-pressed canola, soy, sunflower or safflower oil)

Oil #2: Palm Oil, Palm Olein oil

Palmolein seems to be a very popular choice for a lot of Indian Namkeens. This is not surprising, given India is #1 importer of Palm oil in the world (based on 2019 data)!! You will see this oil being repeatedly used in majority of the fried products.

Deep Products

Here’s Deep ribbon pakoda:

The oil used is Palm Olein oil.

Let’s look at Deep plantain chips:

Starting to see a trend here…Palmolien oil again.

But, wait…are you wondering why they keep using the word Palm Olein oil instead of just palm oil?

Well, I am glad you asked. You see Palm oil which is kind of solid at room temperature (33-39 C), well maybe not in Chennai, but you know in most places that is not blazing hot. That becomes a problem if they have to melt it every time they have to use it.

However, the chemical plant does it for you using a process called “Fractionation.” Just like the word suggests, they fraction the oil into 2 parts:

1. Palm stearin (more solid-like)
2. Palm olein (the liquid parts).

So, the palm olein refers to the oil that is liquid, clear and neutral and easy to fry our snacks in. The Palm stearin is sold to making more solid-based products (like margarine, shortening etc) or sold to cosmetic industries.

Let’s look at some more brands packets:

Amma’s Kitchen

Now, let’s look at Amma’s kitchen:

This one uses Palm oil (which is less processed than Palm Olein oil, I suppose)

Bansi Brand

Ok, not only are they using refined Palmolein oil; they are also exposing their product to light in the stores and further rancidity by using transparent plastic packets. Folks, being able to see your chips or mixture is NOT a good thing. You see, they were fried a few months ago (or more), shipped and set out in shelves. All the aging and the exposure to light will breakdown the fats and you will be eating very oxidized food. Not good!!

Now, if you have a next door aunty who fried snacks fresh in front of your eyes and packaged it in clear plastic, then no worries. But, a product sitting for months on supermarket shelves? – Please no!!

Oil #3: Coconut Oil

Anand

This is my favorite company (no connections/ no sponsorship, etc, just honest opinion). They usually have very clean ingredients in most of their products. Check out their jaggery, for example. One of the few companies that offer jaggery without salt and sodium metabisulphite.

However, even they use Refined coconut oil only.

Oil #4: Peanut oil

Here’s Chettinad brand….They use refined peanut oil.

Grand Sweets and Snacks

The Chennai famous Grand Sweets and Snacks uses Peanut Oil. However, it does not say refined, which is impressive and probably understandable considering its cost :).

However, they are packaged in transparent packing which is not good for a brand of its standing. But, I heard that the company takes no responsibility for the overseas shipped products and it has apparently a strict few-days-only shelf life standards in its local stores.

Worst Oil of ALL

Hydrogenated oils!!

All the other oils can be made better. But, hydrogenated oils that should be avoided at all costs in your product. Hydrogenated vegetable oils‘ trans fats have been shown to harm heart health.

Vijaya Foods

3 problems with this product:

1. They use hydrogenated oil to mix the flour. Granted they use corn oil to fry the product. But hydrogenated oils, even at low levels must be avoided completely.
2. Transparent packaging, that exposes the product to rancidity
3. Preservative (Pottasium Sorbate). Really?? Why does a fried snack need a preservative? The moisture content is low, why must preservatives which are not good for our gut health be added to this product?

These are the reasons why this product is, in my opinion (until the formulation is changed)- the worst fried snack in the market currently.

Conclusion

Which oil is nutritionally better? Definitely avoid trans fats. That has been proven to have disastrous health consequence.

But other than that, ranking the remaining oils is a bit difficult. Vegetable oil was heralded as a champion in the 70’s, now everyone looks down on it. Palm oil is looked down as a cheap oil in India, but the Palm fruit oil (in its original red form without all the chemical, harsh processing) is a part of native African culture. Peanut oil and coconut oils can withstand a lot of heat, but refined versions have undergone a lot of chemical processing as well.

So, do your own research. However, in my opinion, the less processed the oil, the better.

Just 3 main conclusions from this post:

• Do NOT base your namkeen selections on price, discount sales or brand popularity. Start turning the packages around and decide for yourselves based on the content of the product. Remember: over time, repeatedly eating these products accumulates these oils in significant quantity inside our body. Look for freshness of product and less processed oils.
• Fried items have very little moisture in them. So they do not need additional preservatives to keep them shelf-stable. If any company is adding preservatives (like pottasium sorbate), AVOID them completely.
• Do NOT buy fried items exposed to light in transparent see-through packaging. The ones which block out light completely are much better for you.

What oils do your favorite namkeens use? Turn the packet over and post the name of the oils used in the comments section below. No judgments, I promise. Just an intellectual curiosity…