The Reason Vegetable Oil Is Added To Bottled Coffee Creamers
There's nothing like waking up in the morning with a good ole cup of Joe in hand. For some caffeine lovers, however, the taste of straight coffee is too bitter to bear. For this reason, many opt to add coffee creamer to get that sweet taste that makes the drink more enjoyable. Adding creamer to one's coffee has become a routine for plenty of individuals, but if you stop to take a look at the ingredients, one of them may surprise you.
While different brands utilize different ingredients, Healthline reports there are three constant substances in coffee creamers. Water, sugar, and, yes, vegetable oil are the three key ingredients that go into the making of coffee creamer. According to The Spruce Eats, vegetable oil is an oil that comes from plants rather than from animal fats. Many may associate using vegetable oil for cooking and frying, but perhaps not with coffee. Some oils have a flavor to them, but vegetable oil exudes no real zest. So, when people choose to use vegetable oil, they can be sure only the taste of what they are cooking will come through.
Since there's no taste, people wouldn't recognize it being in bottled coffee creamer unless they looked at the ingredients list. So, why is it added to creamer if it has nothing to do with taste? Well, it all comes down to keeping the creamer fresh (via Coffee Affection).
Vegetable oil makes coffee creamer last
It can be a devastating blow to make a cup of coffee, and when you go to add creamer, you find out that it has expired. Apparently, vegetable oil is the ingredient in bottled creamer that is supposed to help prevent this from happening.
Coffee Affection has reported that because vegetable oil is trans fat, it is used by many companies in an attempt to make the food last longer. What makes an oil included in the trans fat category is due to hydrogen getting added to the oil, which in turn makes the food less likely to expire (via Public Health). It's common for vegetable oil to be put in foods that we consume daily like mayo, margarine, and various baked goods to increase shelf life.
Surprisingly, keeping a coffee creamer fresh isn't the only reason that vegetable oil is added to coffee creamer. According to Coffee Affection, vegetable oil helps to give the creamer its consistency. Although it may look like a lighter version of milk, coffee creamer is typically non-dairy. In order to give it that milky texture, companies add vegetable oil. So, next time you wonder why your coffee creamer hasn't expired or why it looks similar to milk, just know that it's because of the added vegetable oil ingredient.