Is there beef tallow in your future?

With Kennedy, there may be
Kennedy could boost beef tallow demand
Robert F. Kennedy Jr. lowered a raw Thanksgiving turkey into a bubbling pot of cooking fat in a video posted to social media last November.
“This is how we cook the MAHA way,” said Kennedy, who the Senate confirmed as head of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services on Thursday, referring to his Trump administration slogan, Make America Healthy Again.
Kennedy was cooking with beef tallow, or rendered beef fat, which he has repeatedly claimed is healthier than canola or other oils from seeds.
Beef tallow, used primarily for cooking but also in products like soap and biodiesel, has been championed by a subset of online wellness influencers. Its nutritional merits compared to seed oils, however, have been disputed.
The market for beef tallow was worth an estimated $480 million in 2023, up from $446 million in 2018, according to the North American Renderers Association, and producers expect that to grow as a result of Kennedy’s enthusiasm.
Some companies had taken note of rising interest even before his confirmation.
In January, Indianapolis-based fast food chain Steak ‘n Shake announced it would begin cooking its shoestring fries in beef tallow. The chain posted a photo on social media of Kennedy in a car with the window rolled down, with the caption: “Did this man just pull up in our drive thru?”
Other restaurant chains have also jumped onboard. Sweetgreen, the Los Angeles-based salad chain, is eliminating seed oils from its menus and using products like olive and avocado oil instead, while Blue Collar Restaurant Group, which owns restaurants in Wyoming and Montana, is replacing seed oils with butter and beef tallow as well as olive and avocado oil.