AOMA seeks to strengthen the verification of avocado oil

September 15, 2026

The Avocado Oil Manufacturers Association (AOMA) issued a formal statement in response to the recent University of California, Davis (UC Davis) study on the authenticity of avocado oil used in processed foods.

The organization not only acknowledges the concerns raised by the research findings, but also calls for continued strengthening of quality standards and methods used to verify product authenticity.

The UC Davis study analyzed 54 processed foods whose label indicated they were made with avocado oil, determining that 48 of these products had inconsistencies with the authenticity criteria applied by the researchers.

In light of these findings, AOMA maintains that concerns about ingredient integrity, labeling, and consumer confidence are absolutely legitimate.

“AOMA’s position is unequivocal: the substitution, dilution, or misrepresentation of avocado oil is unacceptable,” they stated. They also affirmed that consumers should receive what is indicated on the labels and that manufacturers need to be able to trust the ingredients they purchase.

AOMA points to the limitations of current standards

One of the main issues raised by the association is related to the criteria currently used to determine the authenticity of avocado oil. AOMA emphasizes that this product was incorporated in 2024 into the Codex Alimentarius standard for specified vegetable oils (CXS 210-1999), establishing for the first time an international reference for its identity and composition.

However, the organization maintains that the database that establishes the parameters of this standard is still limited, and that factors such as the variety of avocado, the geographical origin of the fruit, the climate, the maturity, the time of harvest and the different processing methods can influence the chemical profile of authentic oils.

This is why AOMA warns that a result that deviates from a compositional range is not, in itself, equivalent to adulteration. In the association's view, control systems need methods capable of differentiating between deliberate substitution and the natural variations that the product may exhibit.

AOMA notes that the UC Davis study represents a major contribution to this process, but believes that further research is needed before compositional limits can be confidently applied on a global scale.

New measures to verify the authenticity of avocado oil

At the same time, the association reported that it is making progress on various initiatives focused on providing a higher level of information about avocado oil and strengthening its authenticity mechanisms.

These include the creation of a global reference database, based on the collection of fresh avocados and verified samples of authentic oils, from diverse producing regions, varieties, harvesting conditions and production methods.

The samples will be analyzed by independent scientific and technological centers. The association also indicated that it will use the evidence obtained to contribute to the refinement of reference ranges and analytical methods used by the industry.

Added to this is the AOMA Authenticity Verification Program, an initiative that the organization says it has been developing for six months and which will combine documented traceability, representative sampling and laboratory analysis for avocado oil manufacturers.

AOMA announced that it will present more details of these initiatives during the 1st International Avocado Oil Congress , which will take place between October 29 and 31, 2026 in Seville, Spain.

A call for responsibility from the entire supply chain

In its statement, AOMA calls on oil producers, food manufacturers, laboratories, researchers, regulators, vendors, and certification bodies to participate in the development of a coordinated international research program.

The association also called for caution and responsibility in communicating the results. In its statement, it argued that serious evidence of potential labeling problems should not be minimized, but neither should results obtained from a limited sample be extrapolated to the entire global industry.

The goal, AOMA maintained, is to move towards an international system capable of identifying fraud, protecting consumers, recognizing responsible producers and strengthening the credibility of the avocado oil sector in the long term.