Frequently asked questions

Because it is! Especially when it comes to cooking. Soilmates Avocado Oil is packed with nutrients and vitamins – there is 45% of your daily recommended amount of vitamin E in just one spoonful (15ml). Soilmates Avocado Oil is also packed with unsaturated fats (the good kind!), antioxidants and omegas. We can go on and on. It’s nothing but avocados, after all. 100% natural.

But the best part? Its high smoke point – this is what ensures that none of Soilmates Avocado Oil’s goodness is lost even when cooking at temperatures up to 270°C. It’s unique – the only natural oil that can get this high. We love that!

Olive oil: the key difference? Soilmates Avocado Oil has a higher smoke point: 270°C vs olive oil’s 170°C. When roasting, say, potatoes you want the crust to be crispy so you turn the fire up high – 180°C, 200°C, 220°C, hot, hot, hot! Soilmates Avocado Oil can handle this heat without losing any nutrients.

Soilmates Avocado Oil has a milder and more delicate taste than any other oils. Coconut oil tastes like, well, coconuts. Olive oil like olives. Not all ingredients are a good match for these strong flavours. Soilmates Avocado Oil’s neutral taste complements whatever meal you choose to prepare. It enhances the flavour of your food – it doesn’t overpower it.

To be completely honest? We aren't crying about the massive anti-seed-oil trend taking over the internet. In fact, we kind of love it!

Why? Because it finally has people turning bottles around, reading ingredient lists, and asking hard questions about what they are putting into their bodies. And naturally, that curiosity leads a lot of conscious foodies straight to our 100% Avocado Healthy Oil.

But at Soilmates, we believe in real facts, not fear-mongering. So let’s set the record straight.

The Science Check: Are seed oils actually bad for you?

Despite what your favorite wellness influencer might claim in a 30-second video, there is no robust scientific evidence that seed oils are inherently bad for your health.

When you look at actual clinical data, mainstream health and nutrition organizations agree that seed oils (like sunflower, canola, or corn oil) are not the toxic villains they are made out to be online.

Don't just take our word for it—check out the facts from trusted health institutions:

• The Dutch Guidelines: The experts at the Voedingscentrum emphasize that vegetable and seed oils fit perfectly within a healthy, balanced diet.
• The Global Data: This comprehensive breakdown by the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health explains the actual science, confirming that the online panic simply doesn't match the scientific evidence.

So, if seed oils aren't evil, why choose Soilmates?

We didn't create Soilmates because we wanted to hate on other oils. We created it because we wanted to build the ultimate kitchen superpower from something the world was throwing away.

We don’t want to win by making you afraid of seed oils. We win because our upcycled avocado oil is simply extraordinary.

Here is what makes our oil stand out on its own merits:

• Insane Heat Resistance: While many oils degrade and smoke when things get hot, Soilmates stays completely stable and retains its nutrients up to 270°C. That’s a global record for plant-based cooking oils.
• We Love Our Uglys: Every single bottle rescues 30 "too ugly for the supermarket" avocados from going to waste.

So, no need to panic about seed oils. But if you want an everyday cooking partner that brings unbeatable health benefits, a beautifully neutral taste, and a zero-waste mission? We're right here. Pure power, zero drama.

The smoke point is the temperature at which your oil starts to visibly smoke in the pan. Once an oil – any oil – has reached its smoke point, flavour is changed, nutrients are lost, and, most importantly, free radical compounds can be created that are damaging to your health. Eeek! With a smoke point of 270°C this isn’t something you need to worry about when cooking with Soilmates Avocado Oil. So go on: make the fire higher!

We love uglys – the rejected, the bruised, the damaged. But they contain impurities and imperfections that we need to remove, even after pressing. Refining gets rid of these, which means we can use *all* of the uglys. Without this process, we cannot rescue them.

What we’re left with after refining is a healthy, shelf-stable product devoid of impurities, with as much of the avocados’ natural goodness retained as possible, making it safe for you to cook with and enjoy.

The refining process for the standard Soilmates avocado oil is physical(or natural). No chemical solvents, such as hexane, are used in the process. See below the more in dept explanation.

1. Why Physical Refining is Used

• Source Material: Soilmates oil is made from upcycled "ugly" avocados (rejected, bruised, or damaged) to reduce food waste.
• Necessity: These avocados contain natural impurities and imperfections that must be removed after pressing. Without this refining process, Soilmates would not be able to rescue these avocados for consumption.
• Result: Physical refining removes these impurities to create a healthy, pure, and shelf-stable product safe for cooking. Physical refining is only possible when starting with high-quality crude oil.

2. The Physical Refining Steps

Physical refining is a process that uses steam distillation and other physical methods to purify and improve the quality of the crude oil without chemical neutralization.

The main steps include:

• Degumming: This step removes phospholipids and gums, which can negatively affect the oil's stability. It involves heating the oil and mixing it with hot water to hydrate and remove these compounds, sometimes with the use of a mild treatment like citric acid.
• Bleaching: The oil is treated with natural bleaching earth/clay under vacuum conditions to adsorb color pigments, trace metals, oxidation products, and other impurities, resulting in a clearer, odorless, and tasteless oil.
• Deodorization: The core step of physical refining. The oil is subjected to high heat and vacuum conditions, where steam is used to strip away free fatty acids (FFA) and volatile compounds responsible for unwanted odors and flavors. 
• Final Filtration: The refined oil is cooled, then passed through a final polishing filter before being stored and bottled.

3. Quality and Nutritional Impact

• Chemical-Free: The process avoids the use of caustic soda or harsh chemical solvents, which are characteristic of chemical refining
• Nutrient Retention: Physical refining is a less aggressive method that generally preserves more of the oil's natural nutrients and antioxidants (like vitamin E) compared to chemical refining.

Absolutely nothing. Soilmates Avocado Oil is an all-natural single ingredient product. Sixty ugly avocados per litre. Thirty ugly avos per bottle. That’s it.

Ugly avos are the avocados that don’t make the beauty cut for supermarkets. They are known in the industry as ‘second grade’ or ‘class two’ avocados, and are classified as such because of bruising, being too ripe (or not ripe enough) or simply because they’re a different shape to the average avo! We rescue them and give them purpose. After all, it’s the inside that’s filled with power nutrients.

We give the uglys a new life by pressing the health out of them.

Well, food waste is a scary thing. Did you know that food waste contributes 6-8% of all greenhouse gas emissions? And that one third of all food produced is wasted? Such a shame.

In Europe alone, over 20% of all avocados are thrown away because they aren’t perfect. That’s over one million kgs per week. Over half a million avocados per day.

Fighting food waste is at the heart of what Soilmates do. We upcycle waste avocados – those ‘too ugly’ to sell in supermarkets – and turn them into affordable, healthy, everyday products.

But, food waste, for us, isn’t just about feeding people, fighting hunger – it’s about protecting the environment. A healthy soil. No more palm oil. We’ve rescued millions of avocados so far: our mission, however, is to upcycle 100,000,000 uglys per year – we want to reach this goal by 2025. Fighting food waste means working towards a better, fairer and more sustainable world for all.

Got ideas on how we can make even more of an impact? Yes, we love that! Share them with us: we are all Soilmates.

Nope! Soilmates Avocado Oil is mild, neutral, practically tasteless. It will add an almost-indistinguishable flavour to your food… along with a good healthy boost of nutrients.

What you really should be asking is what can’t you cook with Soilmates Avocado Oil. Drizzle it on your toast (just like butter but better!). Or use it to grill a steak. Bake a cake. Fry your eggs up in it. Mix it up as a marinade for BBQ’d meat, fish or veg. Add a splash to your soup. Coat a potato in Soilmates Avocado Oil before popping it in the oven. Drizzle it over a salad. Add a spoonful to your smoothies and drink up those nutrients. Your options are endless!

Yes! Brush it through hair as a conditioner, use it on dry skin as a moisturiser – you can even add a drop or two to fix a squeaky door or polish your shoes! There’s nothing it can’t do.

Looking for more inspiration? Email our Gastroman, Sander (sander@soilmates.com). Warning: he is overwhelmingly enthusiastic about Soilmates Avocado Oil.