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Comment by jacobmischka | Hacker News Reader

What is soybean oil traditionally called in the US? I've never actually seen "soybean oil" myself (though it surely exists). Is this the same as "vegetable oil"?

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I was at Target in the sauce aisle and I couldn't believe how literally every sauce I picked up had Soybean oil as the first ingredient.

What is surprising about that? They use what's cheapest.

Yeah, more just surprised that Soybean specifically so ubiquitous. Felt like last time I looked it was a range of weird oil name (corn oil, sunflower oil, canola oil, etc.) Just astonishing how the huge CPG conglomerates have engineered such highly processed food all in the name of price efficiency. I love brands like Primal Kitchen and how many others like it gain popularity as they're one of the few brands whose ingredients are just normal and easily identifiable.

US produces about 1/3 of worldwide soy, I think production is only second to corn. So if nothing else, it's available.

IIRC soybeans help add nitrogen back to the soil and are highly subsidized.

According to https://www.ilsoyadvisor.com/on-farm/ilsoyadvisor/nitrogen-s..., they "fix" nitrogen so require less than other crops, but it's still a net negative.

I think it's revelatory that the supply side finds some byproduct (hey we have all these seeds from cotton, can we do anything with them) and then they force a product from it after the fact, and now we are all worse for it. The market is fake.

Ran into that problem yesterday at the grocery store. I wanted to buy horseradish sauce but every single product offered had soybean oil as a primary ingredient, often the first ingredient. Thankfully horseradish root can still be obtained for making sauce at home.

Horseradish sauce is basically horseradish in mayonnaise, and mayo is made with soybean oil.

Gold's plain "prepared" horseradish is ubiquitous around here, and it only contains horseradish, vinegar, and salt.

https://www.goldshorseradish.com/golds-prepared-horseradish

I've been looking for years for beef jerky that is less than 10% sugar. It doesn't appear to exist.

It absolutely does, though probably not by the big brands at gas stations or convenience stores.

not just every sauce. But salad dressings, marinades, processed crackers/cookies, cereals, granola, most bread, most tortilla shell (soft and hard).

Hell - most "dried fruit" aside from raisins, like blueberries, dried cranberries, and so forth, are all swimming in it. Eating those "healthy" kale chips, beet chips, coconut chips? Check how much added sugar and how much omega6 ridden oils they use

Sardines are packed in soybean oil.

If it's not soybean oils, then it's cottonseed, grapseseed, canola, corn oil, or any other number of oils that we have as larger industrial byproducts.

I expect that most of the soybean oil consumed in the US is consumed as an ingredient in something else—salad dressing, sauces, snacks, etc.—rather than a bottle of "soybean oil" (usually "Vegetable Oil") in their pantry.

If you check the ingredients list, it will list soybean oil. It has to for soy allergies.

From looking at cooking oils yesterday, you'll see either a mix (soy, canola, olive, etc) or a specific oil (canola) in the ingredients list.

Yes, soybean oil is marketed as vegetable oil, e.g. Crisco vegetable oil is soybean based.

Vegetable oil varies per brand, but yes, largely Soy Bean oil.

85% estimation: https://www.chowhound.com/food-news/53980/what-vegetables-go...

50% estimation: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=61QV7ua-kgk

"Vegetable oil" can be soybean oil but it can also be other things. And I do often see "soybean oil", or something like "vegetable oil (soy and/or palm and/or canola)" in a list of ingredients.

Usually. Vegetable oil almost always contains soy oil, but it can be a medley of soy and other oils, or other oils entirely. It’s safe to assume though that any bottle of vegetable oil you see is all or mostly soy.

Is it used in the UK much? I mostly see rapeseed, sunflower and olive oil used.

No, I don't believe I've ever seen it here, even though I frequent asian grocery stores.

Is it supposed to be a big thing in Asian grocery stores? If you walk into a grocery store in China it will quickly become apparent that you're expected to do your cooking with corn oil.

It is indeed frequently sold as "Vegetable Oil", which is a generic term.

However, if you read the Ingredients, you'll find that most Vegetable oils are composed of mostly, or pure, Soybean Oil.

Example: https://www.walmart.com/ip/Great-Value-Vegetable-Oil-1-gal/1...

I believe you're right. Most (if not all) of the "vegetable oil" I've encountered has been soy bean oil.

Another one that annoys me is "wildflower honey" is actually honey from pollinating fields of soybeans.

Yes vegetable oil is usually soybean in my experience, check the ingredients.

In the UK, something marked "vegetable oil" is basically going to be rapeseed (canola), but sometimes sunflower seed oil if it's come from Europe.

If it is marked "pure vegetable oil" it essentially always 100% rapeseed.

Rapeseed grows very easily here, and we don't grow soybeans -- they barely grow at all here.

Soya is a notifiable allergen in the UK -- it must be labelled as such when it's in an unrefined form. And even if it's refined, the law still says the origins of oils have to be declared.

The combination of these two things (cost and allergens) means that if an oil has soya on it, you'll know from the front label. Indeed, if it's anything other than rapeseed it'll probably be marketed that way.

Vegetable Oil (as mentioned in another comment) is largely soybean oil

This is pretty regional. In US I think you are (mostly?) right.

Perhaps "vegetable oil"?

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