Our wine making friends will not like to read this but frying or grilling with grape seed oil is not a good move.

For home chefs there seems little point in working towards a full health diet to then stuff it all up by frying or grilling with grape seed oil.

The problem is grape seed oil has a high smoking point (195c – 200c) and given the equally high polyunsaturated fats, you create from the high heat a reaction with oxygen, allowing free radicals into your diet which you certainly don’t need.

And taking the concerns a little further, be wary of grape seed oil extracted by solvents. Solvents contain Hexane which like free radicals, should be avoided.

Better to buy grape seed oil cold pressed if you can find this on the label. Unfortunately many labels seem to highlight the purity of the oil but avoid any reference to the method of extraction.

A plus for grape seed oil is a relatively high level of vitamin E and when extracted by the safer cold pressed method rather than solvents, the almost neutral flavour allows an excellent base to add interesting additions to a salad dressing

The bottom line on all this is simple: Best not use grape seed oil for frying and be very careful when choosing grape seed oil for a dressing.

There seems little point in messing with a healthy diet when there are perfectly good alternatives available.

It would be good to have your comments on all this. From our view Ghee (clarified butter) wins hands down when it comes to frying or grilling and importantly, our health.

Smoke Points The smoke points on the various oils available make interesting reading : Ghee - 252c Butter – 150c Vegetable Oil – 205c Extra Virgin Olive Oil – 190c Grape seed Oil – 207c Essential information for all home chefs when grilling or frying. www.spiceroadspices.com.au