Vegetable Oils in Our Daily Life
The Ingredient You Use Every Day Has a Bigger Footprint Than You Think
Author: Joel Bonales Revuelta, Sustainability Analyst
You pour them in your frying pan, you buy them in your supermarket, your skincare routine includes them, the walls in your house retain them, and they are possibly even in your car's fuel tank. Vegetable oils are everywhere — and most of us barely notice.
Nowadays, society cultivates multiple types of plants for food and non-food applications, including oilseeds. These types of plants are rich in oils and several kinds of fats. In most cases, the oil is contained in the plant seed. Some of the most common oils include soybean, palm, coconut, sunflower, and canola/rapeseed, among others.
More Than Just Cooking
When we think of vegetable oils, cooking usually comes to mind first. And while they are essential for frying, baking, and flavoring food, their reach extends far beyond the kitchen. Vegetable oils are key ingredients in processed foods, snacks, and pet food, and are also critical components in cosmetics, soaps, detergents, candles, paints, and biofuels. Their versatility is remarkable — and largely invisible to the average consumer.
Where Do Vegetable Oils Come From?
Worldwide, the most widely consumed vegetable oils include palm, soybean, canola/rapeseed, sunflower, palm kernel (a co-product from the same palm oil pathway), peanut, cottonseed, coconut, and olive oils. Palm, soybean, canola/rapeseed, and sunflower oils jointly represent over 90% of global vegetable oil production. Palm oil production mostly takes place in Southeast Asia, as the production of palm trees requires tropical weather conditions. Indonesia and Malaysia represent over 80% of global palm oil production. Soybean oil production is more diversified, as countries such as China, the US, Brazil, and Argentina are the world’s top producers. Canola, which is a specific breed of rapeseed low on erucic acid (which favors its use for human consumption application), is mostly produced in Canada. Other major rapeseed producers include temperate countries such as the European Union, China, and India. Finally, sunflower oil is mostly produced in Black Sea countries, such as Russia and Ukraine.
In general terms, the production of vegetable oil includes three main stages: cultivation, crushing, and refining. The cultivation stage accounts for all the on-field agricultural activities in order to yield the crops. Then, the crushing stage usually involves mechanically pressing the inbound seeds to separate the crude yield from other seed parts (e.g., meal, hulls, kernel, etc.). Crude oils can also be extracted using solvents to increase yields. Then, the crude oil enters the refining stage, where it will be processed to remove components that cause unwanted odors and flavors. Refining usually includes processes such as degumming, neutralization, bleaching, filtering, and deodorizing. At this point, the refined oils are ready to be shipped to customers in bulk and packaged presentations, depending on their final application.
The Sustainability Challenge
Because vegetable oils are crop-derived, their production raises significant sustainability concerns. For example, palm oil plantations in Southeast Asia have been linked to deforestation, threatening local wildlife and communities while contributing to direct land use change-related greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions. A similar pattern takes place for soybean cultivation in the Amazon. Even crops like sunflower and rapeseed, while located in non-tropical countries, can contribute to land use change emissions. Also, most vegetable oils are directly sourced from intensive cultivation systems, which require intensive farming practices and consumption of external inputs such as synthetic fertilizers. On the crushing and refining side, the production of vegetable oils involves energy-intensive processes that demand several chemical products. Additionally, their potential application in the biofuel sector sparks discussions about food versus energy priorities. Overall, the production of vegetable oils has multiple challenges to overcome in terms of their environmental impacts. Certain measures, such as sourcing from certified cultivation systems, implementing energy efficiency measures, and on-site energy use of by-products are being implemented to improve the environmental performance of vegetable oil production.
What's Being Done — and What You Can Do
Some progress is being made. Certification schemes like the Roundtable on Sustainable Palm Oil (RSPO) are pushing producers to meet sustainability requirements across the supply chain. Life cycle assessment (LCA) studies, conducted under these certification frameworks, can provide quantitative, science-based data on the environmental performance of certified vegetable oil systems — helping companies make more informed procurement and product decisions.
Understanding which vegetable oils your products rely on, where they come from, and what their production entails is a meaningful step toward reducing your environmental footprint. For food manufacturers, retailers, and consumer goods brands, this kind of supply chain visibility is increasingly expected by regulators, investors, and consumers alike.
Ready to understand the environmental footprint of your products? EarthShift Global conducts ISO-compliant life cycle assessments across food, agriculture, and consumer goods sectors. Book a free 30-minute consultation to find out how LCA can support your sustainability strategy.
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About the Author
Joel Bonales Revuelta is a Sustainability Analyst at EarthShift Global, based in Morelia, Michoacán, Mexico. Each EarthShift Global project is led by experienced sustainability professionals who bring deep technical expertise and real-world industry knowledge to every engagement.
Joel specializes in life cycle assessment, carbon footprinting, and impact evaluation with particular depth in the food and agriculture sector. His hands-on LCA experience includes multiple studies on palm oil and soybean oil systems, giving him firsthand insight into the environmental complexities of global vegetable oil supply chains — exactly the subject of this post. More broadly, Joel has conducted impact evaluations across agriculture, food, construction, and telecom sectors.
He holds a bachelor's degree in environmental sciences and a master's in sustainability sciences from the Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México (UNAM), drawing on an interdisciplinary background in biology, geography, political science, economics, and engineering. His master's research focused on environmental and economic assessment of a waste-to-energy system using orange peel feedstock, and his publications include an LCA-based evaluation of orange production and a literature review of LCAs on forest-derived solid biofuels. Prior to joining EarthShift Global, Joel worked at SAMBITO - Soluciones Ambientales Totales, an Ecuador-based environmental consulting firm, conducting life cycle inventories and impact evaluations for clients across multiple industries.