Try our favorite, clean protein powder: See our top pick →
Try our favorite, clean protein powder: See our top pick →
This post contains links through which we may earn a small commission should you make a purchase from a brand. This in no way affects our ability to objectively critique the products and brands we review.
Evidence Based Research To fulfill our commitment to bringing our audience accurate and insightful content, our expert writers and medical reviewers rely on carefully curated research.
Read Our Editorial Policy
Get 10% off your order at Primal Kitchen with code:
Welcome to our Primal Kitchen Avocado Oil review!
Having proven its nutritional mettle against olive oil, avocado oil is converting home cooks of all types, but as always, there are top-tier products that bring out the many health benefits of avocado and compromised counterfeits that get in their own way.
Primal Kitchen Avocado Oil positions itself firmly in the first category, both by virtue of its on-paper attributes (e.g., naturally refined) and how it performed in the kitchen.
The high smoke point makes it easy to cook with, the taste was pleasantly mild, and Primal Kitchen stands behind this product with A-class customer support.
We give Primal Kitchen Avocado Oil an overall grade of A, and recommend it to anyone looking for a simple and nutritious cooking oil.
Grade: A
It’s only one ingredient, but Primal Kitchen takes care of it well with a natural refining process and non-GMO verification.
Here’s the ingredient “list” for Primal Kitchen Avocado Oil:
Avocado oil. The end.
The vast majority of avocado oils on the market will follow this one-ingredient format, which presents an excellent opportunity to showcase the value of more behind-the-scenes elements like sourcing and extraction.
Step one, however, is to assess the nutritional value of the avocado oil itself.
In a recent post of ours, we set out to determine whether avocado oil is as healthy as olive oil, essentially calling it a tie on account of how similar they are (while still having different uses).
Like olive oil, avocado oil is rich with monounsaturated fats like oleic acid and micronutrients like vitamin E.
Unique to avocado oil are a class of plant-based compounds (phytosterols) that include campesterol and stigmasterol, both of which can lower cholesterol when incorporated into a heart-healthy diet.
Cold-pressed, extra-virgin olive oil may have a thin edge over avocado oil, but to summarize, they are both significantly more nutritious than highly refined vegetable oils.
As for the sourcing and extraction factors, Primal Kitchen sources their avocados from Mexico, and importantly, their avocado oil is Non-GMO Project verified.
Primal Kitchen’s standard avocado oil—they also have extra-virgin avocado oil—is centrifuge extracted.
This means that the plant material is spun around at a high speed until each of the layers (oil, water, solid fruit) separate because of their unique densities.
Centrifuge extraction is by no means heavy refining, as this process requires no bleaching or other chemicals, but this mechanical process still creates heat that can alter the properties of the oil (just like expeller-pressed oil).
Long answer short, centrifuge-extracted avocado oil takes second place under cold-pressed extra virgin oil, but is still a clean, safe method.
Taking into account the ingredient, sourcing, and manufacturing quality, it’s an A for this ranking category in our Primal Kitchen Avocado Oil review.
Grade: A+
Primal Kitchen Avocado Oil was easy to use and virtually flavorless, and we had no logistical issues to contend with (packaging, delivery time, etc.).
No amount of promo-speak can change the way something feels and tastes, so regardless of the on-paper presentation of any given product, we weigh the user experience just as heavily.
In the case of our review team’s experience with Primal Kitchen Avocado Oil, the word “boring” comes to mind.
The oil swished around the pan with as much apparent viscosity as olive oil (perhaps a tad slicker), we could barely discern any flavor whatsoever, and we have no dramatic customer service, shipping window, or packaging snafus to share.
Cooking oil isn’t exactly the most dynamic tool in the culinary world; most home cooks just want something that won’t smoke out at 300 degrees, and there’s the small matter of avoiding life-altering neurodegenerative diseases (thanks a lot, canola oil).
So, when we say this oil is boring, we mean that it accurately and reliably mimics what we’re all used to (olive, coconut, canola oils) without interfering with the flavor, and with zero nutritional compromises.
The added benefit with avocado oil is that you can use it at higher temperatures than olive oil, and we can attest to the oil withstanding high-temp cooking without issue.
Overall, the only complaint we could imagine someone having is that the oil did not impart a stronger avocado flavor, but considering most cooks aren’t looking for that, it’s an A+ for user experience in our Primal Kitchen Avocado Oil review.
Grade: A
Primal Kitchen stands behind their avocado oil with top-tier customer service, informative product page(s), and more.
Even the highest quality products will fall well short of their potential if the customer service, shipping/return policies, and online shopping experience built around the product is subpar, which is why we make sure to incorporate the entire brand experience in every product review.
In addition to the factors just mentioned, we also take into account the depth and quality of website content and any other features that help or harm our experience with the brand.
While we didn’t have cause to contact Primal Kitchen customer service in the case of reviewing their Avocado Oil, our Primal Kitchen review breaks down what happened when we tested these services.
Summarizing, Primal Kitchen has email, live messenger, and phone support, all of which delivered timely and accommodating answers to our questions.
The online shopping experience is simple and intuitive, aided by menus that portion their otherwise cumbersomely large catalog (80+ products) into categories and well-designed, informative product pages.
It’s not impossible for newbies to Primal Kitchen (and clean/keto eating in general) to gain a sense of the brand and their philosophy between the blog posts and podcasts featured on the site, but because this information isn’t clearly consolidated, it’s harder than it should be.
This is our only legitimate complaint, alongside the policy of not paying return shipping, which certainly isn’t unique to Primal Kitchen (but still).
Overall, Primal Kitchen clearly makes a sustained effort to actively engage with and support their customers, earning them an A for brand experience in our Primal Kitchen Avocado Oil review.
Grade: A-
There’s less room to justify a premium price, considering most avocado oils are just one ingredient, but sourcing and manufacturing quality help Primal Kitchen here.
The larger 750ml (25oz) container of Primal Kitchen Avocado Oil retails for $17.99 on the Primal Kitchen website, reducing to $0.71/oz.
For context, Chosen Foods expeller-pressed avocado oil costs $0.79/oz, and at the lower end of the market is 365 (a Whole Foods Brand) expeller-pressed avocado oil for $0.41/oz.
As reviewed, expeller-pressed and centrifuge-extracted oil essentially share the same position on the taxonomy of oil extraction methods, which is to say that they are tied for second under cold-pressed, extra-virgin oil.
This being the case, we award Primal Kitchen an A- for their oil in the value department, balancing the price point’s somewhat middling position in the market with their brand reputation and other quality-affecting factors.
Yes, the only ingredient in Primal Kitchen avocado oil is centrifuge-extracted avocado oil.
Unrefined avocado oil is widely regarded as better because the heat and chemicals used in the refining process can negatively affect the oil’s nutritional properties.
All avocado oil is well-suited for cooking at medium-to-high temperatures, but a more refined oil, while less nutritious, is more suitable for those who want a milder flavor and vice versa.
Avocado oil and olive oil are very similar in their nutritional profiles, though their unique differences make each well-suited for slightly different cooking scenarios—see our avocado oil vs olive oil article to learn more.
Primal Kitchen Avocado Oil represents the quality ceiling for avocado oil, above which only the much pricier extra-virgin avocado oil lives, with the help of these key differentiators:
Our team found the oil extremely easy to work with and very non-intrusive, and as mentioned, avocado oil is the ideal choice for high-heat cooking.
It’s not the cheapest avocado oil out there, but it certainly isn’t an unfair price point considering the quality and the brand behind it.
We came away from this review with a definitively positive impression of Primal Kitchen Avocado Oil, which received an overall grade of A in our review, and would recommend it to anyone looking for a nutritious, mild cooking oil.
Subscribe now and never miss anything about the topics important to you and your health.