If you're trying to find tortilla chips without seed oils, the first place to look isn't the front of the bag.
It's the ingredient list on the back.
A bag of tortilla chips can be gluten free, organic, non-GMO, or made with simple ingredients and still be cooked in sunflower, canola, soybean, corn, or another seed oil. Those claims tell you other things about the product. They don't necessarily tell you what oil the chips were cooked in.
Fortunately, once you know what you're looking for, finding seed oil free tortilla chips is pretty straightforward.
What are seed oil free tortilla chips?
Simply put, they're tortilla chips made without the oils people commonly refer to as seed oils.
When shoppers talk about avoiding seed oils, they're generally talking about oils such as:
- Canola oil
- Soybean oil
- Sunflower oil
- Safflower oil
- Cottonseed oil
- Grapeseed oil
- Corn oil
Instead, tortilla chips without seed oils are often cooked with fats such as avocado oil, coconut oil, olive oil, or sometimes animal fats such as tallow.
That doesn't automatically make one tortilla chip “healthy” and another one “unhealthy.” We're still talking about chips.
But if avoiding seed oils is something you care about, the cooking oil is one of the first things worth checking.
If you want to compare specific brands and cooking oils, see our guide to the best seed oil free tortilla chips.
How can you tell if tortilla chips contain seed oils?
Flip the bag over and read the ingredients.
It sounds obvious, but this is where a lot of the confusion disappears.
A basic tortilla chip might have an ingredient list that looks something like:
Corn, cooking oil, salt.
The important question is what comes after the corn.
If you're looking for tortilla chips without seed oils, look for an oil such as:
- Coconut oil
- Avocado oil
- Olive oil
And watch for ingredients such as:
- Canola oil
- Sunflower oil
- Soybean oil
- Safflower oil
- Corn oil
Don't assume a chip is seed oil free because the packaging says “natural,” “gluten free,” or “better ingredients.” Those claims answer different questions.
The ingredient list is where you'll find out what the chips are actually cooked in.
Flavored tortilla chips deserve a second look
Plain salted tortilla chips are usually pretty easy to evaluate.
Flavored tortilla chips can be more complicated.
Once you add nacho, ranch, barbecue, lime, or other seasonings, the ingredient list gets longer. Oils can show up not just as the primary cooking oil, but potentially as part of ingredients used in a seasoning blend.
So if avoiding seed oils matters to you, don't stop reading once you find avocado oil or coconut oil near the beginning of the ingredient list.
Read the whole thing.
That's especially important if what you're really looking for is a Doritos alternative without seed oils. Getting rid of one ingredient you don't want isn't particularly helpful if it gets quietly added back somewhere else in the seasoning.
Are gluten free tortilla chips also seed oil free?
Not necessarily.
This is one of the easiest things to mix up.
Gluten free tells you something about gluten.
Seed oil free tells you something about the oils used in the product.
A tortilla chip can be gluten free and still be cooked in sunflower, soybean, or canola oil. And a seed oil free product isn't automatically gluten free.
We broke that distinction down in more detail in our guide to whether tortilla chips are gluten free.
The FDA also has specific requirements for foods marketed as gluten free, which you can read in its gluten-free food labeling guidance.
If you care about both gluten and cooking oils, check both.
That's exactly what we did with FIXD.
What oil does FIXD use?
FIXD tortilla chips are made with coconut oil instead of seed oils.
They're also gluten free, contain no artificial dyes or colors, and are made in a facility free from the top nine major allergens.
But the reason we started FIXD wasn't because we wanted to make the kind of chip where you have to convince yourself it tastes good because you like the ingredient list.
We wanted the opposite.
We wanted the kind of tortilla chip we'd reach for even if we weren't thinking about ingredients at all, and then we wanted to fix what was in it.
Because a better ingredient list doesn't matter much if nobody wants to finish the bag.
What should you look for in a seed oil free tortilla chip?
There are really four things we look at.
1. A cooking oil you actually want
Start there.
If you're specifically shopping for tortilla chips without seed oils, make sure the primary cooking oil matches what you're looking for.
For FIXD, that's coconut oil.
2. The entire ingredient list
Don't just look at the first three ingredients and call it good.
This matters especially with flavored chips, where the seasoning itself can add a surprisingly long list of ingredients.
3. The dietary claims that matter to you
Seed oil free and gluten free aren't interchangeable.
Neither are organic, non-GMO, dairy free, grain free, or allergen free.
Figure out which things actually matter to you and check them individually rather than assuming one claim means all the others.
You can see more information about our ingredients, allergens, and products in the FIXD FAQ.
4. Whether you'd actually want another handful
This one gets forgotten.
A lot of “better-for-you” snacks seem to start with the assumption that taste is the thing you're supposed to sacrifice.
We don't buy that.
If we're replacing the tortilla chips we grew up eating or reaching for something instead of Doritos, it still needs to be crunchy, salty, flavorful, and dangerously easy to keep eating.
Otherwise, what exactly did we fix?
Are Doritos seed oil free?
The safest answer is to check the ingredient list of the specific flavor you're buying.
Large snack brands sell a lot of different flavors and formulations, and ingredients can change over time. Rather than assuming anything based on the brand name alone, look at the package you're actually buying.
If what you're really trying to find is the Doritos experience without seed oils, a crunchy corn chip with a lot more flavor than a plain salted tortilla chip, that's a slightly different search.
And frankly, it's one of the reasons we made Tangy Tortilla.
We wanted something with the craveability and flavor hit you expect from the snack aisle, but with an ingredient list we felt better about bringing home.
We dig much deeper into that in our guide to the best Doritos alternatives without seed oils.
The bottom line
Finding tortilla chips without seed oils doesn't require decoding the entire grocery aisle.
Start with the ingredient list.
Check the cooking oil. Check the seasoning. Then separately check things like gluten-free labeling or allergens if they're important to you.
And don't lower the bar on taste just because you're paying more attention to ingredients.
That's basically the idea behind FIXD:
Make the tortilla chip you actually want to eat. Then fix what's in it.
If you're ready to compare options, start with our guide to the best seed oil free tortilla chips, or shop FIXD tortilla chips.
Good ingredients. Bad self-control.