Alex Clark EXPOSES Steak ‘n Shake—Their “Tallow Fries” Are STILL Coated in Seed Oils!

And two French Fry brands that are doing right with no seed oils!

Alright, let’s cut straight to the chase—Steak ‘n Shake made a HUGE deal about switching to beef tallow for frying their fries. And on the surface they for sure are right on the money because tallow is in and seed oils are out but there’s something they aren’t being honest about. They marketed it as a massive win against seed oils, riding the wave of the growing movement to eliminate these inflammatory, toxic oils from our diets. They wanted to position themselves as the one fast-food chain with a “backbone,” bravely standing up against the chronic disease-inducing garbage that most restaurants still use.

PS - FOR THE POLL, I haven’t had fast food in years but I sure miss In-N-Out and would totally eat a protein style burger again with some fries if they went' seed oil free. Come on

But then—BOOM. Alex Clark dropped the truth bomb:

"The Steak ‘n Shake ‘tallow fries’ are precooked in vegetable oil lol."

For a chain that boldly declared "WAR on seed oils," this is embarrassing. And honestly? It’s insulting to every customer who celebrated their switch, thinking they were making a healthier choice. It means that despite all their posturing, Steak ‘n Shake’s fries are STILL coming into contact with the same industrial sludge (aka seed oils) they claimed to be rejecting.

And instead of being honest about it, what did they do? They attacked Alex Clark.

Steak ‘n Shake’s Unhinged Response

After Alex called them out, Steak ‘n Shake responded like a brand that just got caught with their hand in the seed-oil-coated cookie jar:

"@yoalexrapz here you go again Alex... you still haven't responded to our earlier messages when you posted incorrectly the screenshot. You also said we tried to pay you, also untrue. What's your beef? Try our beef tallow... we hear it creates positive energy. We cook in 100% beef tallow with no preservatives, no chemicals, no additives not the brand in screenshot. Take that energy and try to get all other burger chains to switch to our beef tallow. Either they are too chicken or it's too expensive for them. Again, we are working with all our suppliers to eliminate ALL seed oils from our restaurants. If you want perfection, you don’t live in this world! Bottom line, we have declared WAR on seed oils! Who has the courage to say that?! Steak 'n Shake is the only chain with a backbone! ✌️"

First of all, this is NOT how a company that values transparency responds to criticism. This is how a company that got caught lying tries to gaslight its customers.

Instead of simply addressing Alex’s claim, they got defensive, deflected, and turned it into a weird flex about how other chains are “too chicken” to use tallow. But guess what? If you’re still feeding people seed oils, you’re no better than the rest of them.

They could have just admitted, "Hey, we’re working on it, but supply chain issues make it tough." But nope—they doubled down on their deception.

The Industry Confirms: Steak ‘n Shake Isn’t Telling the Whole Story

Chef Andrew Gruel, who has been vocal about the seed oil crisis and the struggles restaurant owners face in avoiding them, jumped into the conversation with an important point:

"Correct, I assumed everyone knew this from the pics. There's only one company doing frozen food service par-cooked tallow fries to restaurants, and it's @jesseandbens—you have to cut and blanch in-house otherwise."

And further explained:

"I have talked about this for years. It's a supply chain issue. There are only a couple purveyors in food service and getting into the chain is very hard. Just ask any small food producer. In addition, restaurants are paid incentives not to use the good guys. This is part of the reason I got out of large multi-unit ownership until I could work on fixing supply."

Translation? Unless a restaurant is cutting and blanching their fries in-house (which Steak ‘n Shake isn’t doing), those fries were almost certainly precooked in vegetable oil before ever touching beef tallow. Remember the 10 second rule I talked about recently?

So yeah, they’re frying them in tallow—but what’s the point if the damage is already done upstream? It’s like taking a deep breath of “fresh air” in a room that was just fumigated with toxic chemicals.

And if Steak ‘n Shake had nothing to hide, why are they so defensive?

Seed Oil Scout Steps Up With a Bounty for the Truth

If you need any more proof that Steak ‘n Shake’s claims are sketchy, Seed Oil Scout is literally offering $1,000 to any employee who can provide proof that the fries are pre-blanched in vegetable oil.

"We're offering a $1000 bounty to any employee of @SteaknShake who can settle whether or not the fries are pre-blanched in vegetable oil. We'll protect your identity and get the truth out there, contact: whistleblower@seedoilscout.com"

This isn’t some random conspiracy theory. People want answers, and Steak ‘n Shake won’t give them.

Calley Means: Honesty is the Answer, Not Attacks

Calley Means, another leader in the fight against seed oils, stepped in to call out Steak ‘n Shake for their aggressive response:

"Dear @SteaknShake - I celebrated your move on Fox. We are all supportive of your efforts. But horrible idea to question the integrity of @yoalexrapz who is a leader in this movement and is only trying to get to the truth. If you can’t fully get seed oils out of supply chain yet, just let us know why it’s difficult and how you’re working to do that. We all understand changing food supply chains is a long-term journey. But if you get substantial goodwill from saying ‘no seed oils in fries’ and your fries have seed oils, then just explain that. And don’t attack leaders in the movement like Alex!"

EXACTLY. This isn’t about attacking Steak ‘n Shake for the sake of it—it’s about holding them accountable for their own claims.

Here’s the deal…. If they just admitted, “Yeah, we’re working on getting rid of seed oils entirely, but right now our supplier still pre-blanches the fries in them,” people would actually respect that and still celebrate them. Now perhaps most of us wouldn’t eat them until they were fully seed oil free but like Calley said we understand that supply chain issues happen and changing them up is a lot. But instead, they went full damage control, attacking Alex and acting like customers shouldn’t care about the details. Details are exactly what we care about when it comes to ingredients and our food.

We Deserve TRULY Seed Oil-Free Food—And Some Brands Are Doing It Right

Look, switching to beef tallow is a step in the right direction. But if companies want to market themselves as fully seed oil-free, then they need to actually follow through.

There are brands doing it right, and we should support them. One of them is Roots Farm Fresh, (whom I already love so very much) which makes frozen fries cooked in avocado oil and olive oil. Unlike Steak ‘n Shake, they aren’t trying to sneak seed oils into their product while pretending to be something they’re not. They even are launching tater tots here pretty soon and I’m totally here for it. Let me also clear something up. I recently attended Expo West, the largest natural products food expo in the world and when I was posting about Roots Farm Fresh and their tots, a follower on instagram said that they are “disappointed that they still sell seed oil fries to bigger box stores like Costco etc” but when I reached out to Roots, their reply was., “We get this all the time. Club stores won’t carry our seed oil free product because of the price point. We don’t want to continue making product with seed oils so we are slowly transitioning out of club stores.” This is HUGE. They are willing to quit the big box club stores to go totally seed oil free. In other words, if you see their fries at regular grocery stores they will be seed oil free. They are transitioning out (probably ending contracts) of the club stores because the club stores are the problem.

Check them out here: Roots Farm Fresh

As for tallow fries, as mentioned above, Jesse and Bens are doing tallow fries right! They are making restaurant quality fries without the seed oils. They have three flavors including Tallow & Salt, Classic Salt and the one I’m looking forward to the most, Rosemary & Garlic - launching in Sprouts near you come mid-April. I haven’t tried them yet personally but I know quite a few people that have and that love them. What’s not to love? Potato, tallow and herbs? I’m so down.

Check them out here: Jesse & Bens.

Supporting brands that truly commit to real food is how we fight back against deceptive marketing and demand better options. “VOTE WITH YOUR DOLLARS” isn’t just a cute saying or protest signage. It’s legit.

Steak ‘n Shake, You Got Caught with your seed oils showing. Yuck. Now What?

The bottom line is this: Steak ‘n Shake got exposed. They made seed oil-free fries their entire marketing campaign, but it turns out they’re not actually seed oil-free.

And instead of owning up to it, they attacked the person who called them out.

If you truly care about eliminating toxic seed oils, don’t let companies get away with this kind of deception. Hold them accountable. Demand honesty. And most importantly—support brands that actually walk the walk. Hey Roots Farm Fresh & Jesse and Bens! We see you and we’re here for you and we support you!

At the end of the day, we deserve better food.

What do you think? Should Steak ‘n Shake be held accountable, or do you think this is just an overreaction? Drop a comment below.