A cold-press process is occasionally used. While cold-pressed soybean oil was shown safe in the soybean oil trials, this process might occasionally fail to exclude all protein. Insufficient testing has been done to ensure the safety of all cold-pressed oils. In other countries, other oil extraction processes may be used on occasion. Only oil prepared by the hot-solvent extraction processes that are commonly used in the United States is known to be free of protein.
Many allergic consumers are convinced that they react to oils, especially peanut oil.
There may be alternative explanations for some of these reactions, such as the use of peanut butter in egg rolls fried in peanut oil in restaurants or the frying of multiple foods in the same oil. However, if you are convinced that you react to oils, avoidance is an option. Restaurants should be able to identify the oil used in their fryers. In conclusion, oils are usually safe, but caution is necessary especially in food service situations. Adapted from Food Allergy News, Volume 3, Number 4.