Oil Smoke Points: Smoke and Flash Point Chart for 45 Oils and Grades

The smoke point of a cooking oil is the temperature at which it begins to give off continuous, clearly visible smoke under defined laboratory conditions, and the flash point is the higher temperature at which the vapours coming off it will ignite momentarily when a flame is applied.

Cooking oil smoke point and flash point chart

Twenty-two oils and fats, across forty-five grades and refinement states, with every figure traceable to a named source at the foot of the table. A dash in the flash point column means no flash point is published for that oil and refinement state in either source, so none is given here rather than inferred from a neighbouring oil.

Oil or fat, and refinement state	Smoke point °C (°F)	Flash point °C (°F)	Source
Almond	221 (430)	—	B
Avocado, refined	271 (520)	—	B
Avocado, virgin or extra virgin (unrefined)	200–250 (392–482)	—	B
Butter	150 (302)	—	B
Butter, clarified (ghee)	250 (482)	—	B
Canola / rapeseed, refined	204–236 (400–457)	326 (619)	A, B
Canola / rapeseed, high-oleic, refined	240 (464)	340 (644)	A
Canola / rapeseed, expeller-pressed (unrefined)	190–232 (375–450)	—	B
Coconut, refined (dry)	196–204 (385–400)	295 (563)	A, B
Coconut, virgin (unrefined)	177 (350)	—	B
Corn, refined	230–238 (446–460)	325 (617)	A, B
Corn, unrefined	178 (352)	—	B
Cottonseed, refined (RBD)	220–232 (428–450)	319 (606)	A, B
Flaxseed / linseed, unrefined	107 (225)	—	B
Grapeseed	216 (421)	—	B
Lard	190–240 (374–464)	330 (626)	A, B
Mustard	250 (480)	—	B
Olive, refined	199–243 (390–470)	—	B
Olive, virgin	210 (410)	—	B
Olive, extra virgin	190–207 (374–405)	—	B
Palm, refined (RBD)	254 (489)	324 (615)	A
Palm olein, refined (iodine value ~57)	230 (446)	324 (615)	A
Palm hard fraction / stearin, refined (iodine value ~35)	230 (446)	326 (619)	A
Palm, fractionated	235 (455)	—	B
Peanut / groundnut, refined	227–232 (441–450)	334 (633)	A, B
Peanut / groundnut, unrefined	160 (320)	—	B
Pecan	243 (470)	—	B
Rice bran, refined	229–232 (444–450)	324 (615)	A, B
Rice bran, refined, high gamma-oryzanol	222 (432)	316 (601)	A
Safflower, refined	266 (510)	—	B
Safflower, semi-refined	160 (320)	—	B
Safflower, unrefined	107 (225)	—	B
Sesame, semi-refined	232 (450)	—	B
Sesame, unrefined	177 (350)	—	B
Soybean, refined	234–240 (453–464)	330 (626)	A, B
Soybean, refined, low-linolenic	237 (458)	331 (628)	A
Soybean, partially hydrogenated (iodine value ~70)	230 (446)	330 (626)	A
Sunflower, refined (neutralised, dewaxed, bleached, deodorised)	227–254 (441–489)	—	B
Sunflower, semi-refined	232 (450)	—	B
Sunflower, mid-oleic, refined	211 (412)	319 (607)	A
Sunflower, high-oleic, refined	232–244 (450–471)	319 (606)	A, B
Sunflower, high-oleic, unrefined	160 (320)	—	B
Sunflower, unrefined, first cold-pressed	107 (225)	—	B
Tallow (beef)	230–250 (446–480)	330 (626)	A, B
Vegetable oil blend, refined	220 (428)	—	B

Sources

• A — ISEO. Institute of Shortening and Edible Oils, Typical Smoke, Flash and Fire Points of Commercially Available Edible Fats and Oils. Determined by AOCS method Cc 9a-48 (Cleveland Open Cup). ISEO records that its commercial samples were tested after deodorisation at a free fatty acid content of 0.05% or less, and that each figure rests on a single test rather than a statistically valid mean.
• B — published reference compilations. Values as collated in the widely cited smoke point tables maintained from food science reference literature, principally F. D. Gunstone (ed.), Vegetable Oils in Food Technology: Composition, Properties and Uses, 2nd edition, Wiley-Blackwell, 2011; with individual figures from J. B. Marcus, Culinary Nutrition, Academic Press, 2013; The Culinary Institute of America, The Professional Chef, 9th edition, 2011; and S. B. Detwiler and K. S. Markley, “Smoke, flash, and fire points of soybean and other vegetable oils”, Oil & Soap 17(2), 1940. These are secondary compilations: individual rows trace back to different laboratories testing material at different refinement levels, which is why they are given as ranges wherever the underlying sources disagree.

Two further notes on specific rows. The 199–243 °C range published for refined olive oil originates with a trade association and its verification has been publicly questioned, so treat the upper end of that range with particular caution. The wide ranges shown for lard and tallow reflect a genuine split between sources rather than measurement noise: ISEO tested deodorised commercial rendered fats, while culinary reference works describe kitchen-grade fat carrying far more free fatty acid.

Read this as reference, not as a specification

The figures above are indicative published ranges compiled for reference. They are not measurements of any particular consignment, and smoke point is not a specification parameter Refine Sunflower Oil certifies. Where a quality parameter governs a supply contract, it is the certificate of analysis issued for that lot that applies, and nothing on this page substitutes for it.

ISEO states plainly that its own values rest on a single test per oil source, so they are neither a statistically valid mean nor a description of the range attributable to each oil. It records that results vary with processing technique and with seasonal variation, that the method carries a degree of analyst subjectivity, and that a prudent margin of safety should be worked below any published figure. That advice applies to every row in the chart above.

Smoke point is also not a measure of how stable an oil is. Oxidative stability depends on fatty acid composition and on the minor components that survive refining, and it does not track smoke point: an oil can smoke late and oxidise quickly. Choosing a frying oil on smoke point alone is a mistake.

How smoke, flash and fire point are determined

All three are determined together under AOCS method Cc 9a-48, the Cleveland Open Cup. A sample is heated at a controlled rate in an open cup, shielded from draughts and specially illuminated so that the first wisp of smoke can be seen against the background.

• Smoke point — the temperature at which smoke is first detected coming continuously off the surface.
• Flash point — the temperature at which volatile decomposition products are evolving fast enough to be ignited by an applied flame, but not fast enough to sustain combustion.
• Fire point — the higher temperature at which those vapours will support continued burning. For the oils in the ISEO set it generally falls between 330 °C and 368 °C (626–695 °F), roughly 25 to 45 degrees above the flash point.

Because the endpoint is a visual judgement made by an analyst, the same sample tested by two laboratories can return figures several degrees apart. Naming the method in a contract is what makes two suppliers’ numbers comparable at all.

A practical consequence of the flash point column: every oil in the chart flashes somewhere between about 295 °C and 340 °C, a band only 45 degrees wide, while smoke points spread across 164 degrees. Flash point is largely a property of triglycerides in general; smoke point is a property of what else is in the oil. That difference is the whole story of this chart.

The thermal principles behind the numbers

An oil is mostly triglyceride: three fatty acid chains esterified to a glycerol backbone. Intact triglycerides are large, heavy molecules that do not volatilise readily, and heating them alone to frying temperature produces very little visible smoke.

What smokes is the small stuff. Free fatty acids — chains that have been cleaved off the glycerol backbone and are no longer bound to it — are far smaller and far more volatile, and they vaporise and decompose well below the temperature at which the parent triglyceride does. The more free fatty acid an oil carries, the earlier it smokes. Alongside them sit monoglycerides and diglycerides, phospholipids, moisture, fine solids, pigments and the aroma compounds of an unrefined oil, every one of which burns or volatilises lower than the triglyceride itself.

Fatty acid saturation plays a secondary role. Saturated chains are straight and pack closely; polyunsaturated chains are kinked by their double bonds, oxidise more readily and generate volatile breakdown products faster at a given temperature. This is why a high-oleic version of an oil, with more monounsaturated and less polyunsaturated fat, tends to come in a little above the commodity version of the same oil — compare high-oleic canola at 240 °C against refined canola at 204–236 °C, or high-oleic sunflower at 232–244 °C against mid-oleic sunflower at 211 °C.

Why refining raises the smoke point

Crude oil leaves the press or the extraction plant carrying free fatty acids, phospholipids, waxes, pigments, moisture and fine solids — the entire inventory of things that smoke early. Refining removes them in stages: neutralising strips free fatty acids, bleaching takes out pigments and oxidation products, winterising or dewaxing removes waxes, and deodorising steam-strips the remaining volatiles. Each step lifts the temperature at which visible smoke appears.

The ISEO footnote makes the link explicit. Its samples were tested after deodorisation, at a free fatty acid content of 0.05% or less. That is the condition under which the high figures in the chart were obtained, and an oil that does not meet it will not reach them.

The size of the effect is easy to underestimate. Unrefined, first cold-pressed sunflower oil is published at 107 °C; fully refined sunflower oil at 227–254 °C. That is a gap of well over 100 °C between two products sold under the same oil name. Unrefined safflower and unrefined flaxseed sit at the same 107 °C, unrefined peanut at 160 °C against 227–232 °C refined, unrefined corn at 178 °C against 230–238 °C refined. Treating any oil as a single thermal product, without naming its refinement state, is the most common error in published smoke point charts — and the reason this one lists refined and unrefined separately on every oil where the distinction is material.

Why a used oil smokes lower than a fresh one

The same mechanism runs in reverse during frying. Water from the food drives hydrolysis, which cleaves fatty acids off the glycerol backbone and raises free fatty acid content continuously. Food particles carbonise and stay in suspension. Oxidation and polymerisation build up compounds that were not there at the start.

So the smoke point of the oil in a working fryer falls across a shift, and keeps falling across the life of the charge. The number that matters on a production line is the smoke point of the oil as it actually stands in the fryer, not the figure for fresh oil on a reference chart. This is also why animal fats and less-refined oils used in a domestic kitchen appear to smoke lower than published figures suggest: the aroma and residue compounds in them start smoking before the fat itself does.

Why published figures disagree

Anyone comparing two smoke point charts will find them contradicting each other, sometimes by 20 °C or more on the same named oil. There are four reasons, and none of them is carelessness.

1. Refinement state is often unstated. “Sunflower oil” covers everything from cold-pressed at 107 °C to fully refined at 254 °C. A chart that gives one number for it has quietly chosen one state.
2. Free fatty acid content differs between samples. Two refined oils both meeting a commercial grade can sit at meaningfully different free fatty acid levels, and that alone moves the smoke point.
3. The endpoint is a human judgement. Cc 9a-48 asks an analyst to see the first continuous smoke. ISEO names this explicitly as a source of variability.
4. Compilations propagate single measurements. Many widely reproduced figures descend from one test published decades ago, re-cited without re-measurement.

The honest response is to publish ranges and name the refinement state, which is what the chart above does.

Where compositional standards do and do not help

Buyers often assume smoke point is fixed by international standard. It is not.

The Codex Alimentarius Standard for Named Vegetable Oils, CODEX STAN 210-1999, adopted under the joint FAO/WHO Food Standards Programme, defines what may be sold as sunflower seed oil, soybean oil, palm oil, olive oil and the rest. It sets fatty acid composition ranges, identity characteristics such as relative density and refractive index, and quality limits including free fatty acid content and peroxide value. It does not set a smoke point, and it does not set a flash point.

The connection to this chart is therefore indirect but real: Codex constrains the free fatty acid content of an oil sold to a named grade, and free fatty acid content is what drives smoke point. Methods come from a separate body — the American Oil Chemists’ Society publishes the test procedures, Cc 9a-48 among them. A specification that references both a Codex-aligned quality limit and a named AOCS method is one two laboratories can actually agree on.

Oils deliberately left out

Palm kernel oil is absent. No published smoke point for refined palm kernel oil could be traced to a source worth citing, and a figure inferred from coconut oil — chemically its closest relative — would be a guess dressed as data. The same applies to walnut, hazelnut and macadamia oil, each of which appears in popular charts without an attributable measurement behind it. They are left off rather than estimated.

Flash points are blank for every row sourced only from the reference compilations, because those compilations publish smoke points without flash points. Only the eighteen fats in the ISEO set have a flash point here.

Using this when you buy

If a thermal parameter matters to your process, write it into the contract with the test method named, and read it back off the lot certificate rather than off a chart. How to read a certificate of analysis walks through what a sunflower oil COA does and does not tell you, and the fatty acid profile explained covers the composition behind the thermal behaviour.

For sunflower specifically, smoke point by grade compares crude, RBD and high-oleic, the smoke point of sunflower oil in detail goes further into the refined grade, and flash point data for bulk storage and transport deals with the handling and storage side. Choosing oils for commercial frying looks at how these properties behave over the life of a fryer charge.

Refine Sunflower Oil manufactures edible oils in Kyiv, Ukraine, and has exported since 2000. Production runs to HACCP and ISO 22000 food safety standards, with non-GMO grades available on request. We supply refined sunflower oil and sunflower oil across crude and refined grades, alongside refined soybean oil, refined canola oil, refined corn oil, RBD palm oil, refined olive oil, refined coconut oil, refined sesame oil and refined peanut oil.

Quotations are on FOB or CIF named port terms under Incoterms 2020, with payment by bank transfer in EUR or USD and lead time typically 7 to 14 days from order confirmation. Each consignment ships with a certificate of analysis and a certificate of origin, and packing can be flexitank, ISO tank, 190 kg drum, IBC or PET. Send your requirement to the export desk with the oil, the quality limits you need held and the destination port, or see how shipments are packed and documented.