Why We Never Use Seed Oils, And What We Use Instead

The Ingredient in Almost Every Cookie That No One Is Talking About

Pick up any packaged cookie from a grocery store shelf. Flip it over. Scan the ingredient list. 

There it is, third or fourth ingredient in, wedged between flour and sugar. Canola oil. Vegetable oil. Sunflower oil. Soybean oil. Sometimes the label just says “one or more of the following” and lists four of them. 

Most people skip right past it. It’s oil. Every baked good has some kind of fat. What’s the big deal? 

The big deal is this: seed oils are one of the most heavily processed ingredients in the modern food supply, and they are in nearly everything you eat, including products marketed as healthy, vegan, gluten free, and clean. 

At Emet Desserts, we made a decision early on that seed oils would never appear in any of our products. Not as a shortcut, not as a cost-saving measure, and not because a trend told us to. We made that decision because when you dig into what seed oils actually are and how they’re made, the answer becomes obvious.

Here’s the full story. 

What Are Seed Oils, Exactly? 

Seed oils are fats extracted from the seeds of plants, canola (rapeseed), sunflower, soybean, corn, safflower, cottonseed, and grapeseed are the most common. They’re also called vegetable oils, though that name is misleading. They have nothing to do with vegetables and everything to do with industrial processing. 

The extraction process is the problem. To get oil from a seed, you can’t just press it the way you’d press an olive. Seeds are too small and too low in fat content for cold pressing to work at commercial scale. Instead, the seeds go through a multi-step industrial process: 

1. Heated to extremely high temperatures, which begins to oxidize and degrade the oil immediately 

2. Treated with a petroleum-derived solvent, typically hexane, to extract remaining oil from the seed mash 

3. Further refined, bleached, and deodorized to remove the rancid smell that results from steps 1 and 2 

What comes out the other side is a clear, odorless, flavorless oil that bears almost no resemblance to its original plant source. It’s shelf-stable, cheap, and easy to work with, which is exactly why the food industry loves it. 

Why Seed Oils Are a Problem in Baked Goods 

The Omega-6 Overload 

Seed oils are extremely high in omega-6 polyunsaturated fatty acids. Omega-6 is not inherently bad, your body needs it. But the ratio of omega-6 to omega-3 in your diet matters enormously. 

For most of human history, people consumed these fatty acids in roughly a 1:1 to 4:1 ratio. Today, largely because of seed oil consumption, the average ratio in a Western diet is estimated at 15:1 to 20:1 in favor of omega-6. That imbalance is consistently associated with chronic inflammation, cardiovascular risk, and metabolic issues. 

The problem isn’t the omega-6 in isolation. It’s the sheer volume of it that seed oils

introduce to the diet, with no corresponding omega-3 to balance it out. 

They Oxidize Under Heat 

Seed oils are polyunsaturated, which means they have multiple double bonds in their chemical structure. Double bonds are reactive, they break down when exposed to heat, light, and air. This is exactly why seed oils go rancid so quickly in the bottle. 

Now consider what happens when you bake with them at 365°F for 12–16 minutes. The oils oxidize, producing compounds called aldehydes and lipid peroxides, byproducts that research links to tissue damage and cellular stress. Cold-pressed, stable fats are far more resistant to this kind of degradation at baking temperatures. 

The “Neutral” Flavor Is a Processing Artifact 

Seed oils are marketed as flavorless and neutral, which sounds like a benefit for baking. But that neutral profile isn’t natural, it’s the result of the bleaching and deodorization process that strips out the compounds that would otherwise smell and taste rancid. 

You’re not getting a neutral ingredient. You’re getting a heavily processed one that has had its problems chemically masked. 

What Every “Clean” Cookie Brand Gets Wrong 

Here’s what frustrates us most about the clean food space: the word “clean” has no legal definition. It can appear on any label, any package, any product, regardless of what the ingredient list actually says. 

• Plenty of vegan cookie brands use sunflower oil. 
• Plenty of gluten-free brands use canola oil. 
• Plenty of allergen-friendly brands use soybean oil. 

They’re not lying about the vegan or gluten-free claim. But they’re using the word “clean” while quietly including one of the most processed, industrially-refined ingredients in the food supply. 

• We built Emet around refusing to do that. 
• What We Use Instead: Extra Virgin Olive Oil 
• When we formulated The Original, our dark chocolate chip cookie, we tested multiple fat

sources before landing on extra virgin olive oil. It wasn’t the simplest choice. Olive oil has a real flavor profile, which means the entire recipe has to be built around it rather than just substituted in. 

But the result is better in every way. 

Why Extra Virgin Olive Oil Works 

Extra virgin olive oil is cold-pressed from whole olives, no hexane, no refining, no deodorizing. It’s approximately 73% monounsaturated fat (oleic acid), which is exceptionally heat-stable compared to the polyunsaturated fatty acids in seed oils. 

It has been a dietary staple for thousands of years, not because it was the cheapest or most convenient option, but because it comes from a whole, recognizable source and holds up well under heat. 

In baking, extra virgin olive oil contributes: 

Genuine fat richness without butter or shortening 

A tender, soft crumb that holds moisture after baking 

Heat stability that doesn’t produce the same oxidative byproducts as seed oils A real food profile you can trace to a single source 

Does It Taste Like Olive Oil? 

This is the question we get asked most. The honest answer: it tastes like a cookie. A very good one. 

The olive oil integrates into the dough and contributes a subtle roundness and depth that you’d never get from a refined neutral oil, but it doesn’t overwhelm the dark chocolate or the coconut sugar caramel notes. It supports the flavor rather than flattening it. 

If you’ve had a cookie made with seed oil and a cookie made with quality olive oil side by side, you’d immediately notice the difference in mouthfeel and finish. One coats your mouth in a way that lingers. The other is clean. 

How to Spot Seed Oils on a Label 

Not every label is upfront. Here’s exactly what to look for: 

Canola oil (also listed as rapeseed oil)

Vegetable oil (almost always a seed oil blend) 

Soybean oil 

Sunflower oil 

Safflower oil 

Corn oil 

Cottonseed oil 

Grapeseed oil 

Partially hydrogenated anything, this is trans fat in its most processed form 

Also watch for “expeller-pressed” or “cold-pressed” claims on seed oils. These are marginally better processing methods, but the omega-6 imbalance problem doesn’t go away just because the extraction skipped hexane. Expeller-pressed canola oil is still canola oil. 

The Emet Standard on Fats 

Every Emet product is made with zero seed oils. That is not a marketing claim, it is a formulation commitment that shapes every recipe we develop. 

When we create a new product, the question is never “what’s the cheapest fat we can use.” The question is “what fat is actually right for this product and the person eating it.” The answer is always a whole-food fat source with a clean extraction process and a stable chemical structure. 

Right now, that means extra virgin olive oil in The Original. As the product line grows, we will apply that same standard to every new dessert we develop. 

Because if we wouldn’t put it in our own food, we’re not putting it in yours. 

Try a Cookie with Zero Seed Oils 

The Original is our dark chocolate chip cookie, gluten free, vegan, soy free, made with extra virgin olive oil and nothing you’d have to look up. 

Shop The Original →

Emet Desserts is a cottage food business based in Hollywood, Florida, operating under Florida Cottage Food Law. All products are gluten free, vegan, soy free, and made with zero seed oils.