Beef tallow in Europe - overview
- Beef tallow is booming in the US food sector with MAHA support and anti-seed-oil sentiment driving growing demand
- European uptake is likely to be slower than America
- Different beef consumption habits may limit mainstream appeal
- Health guidance still favours unsaturated fats over tallow
- Social media could boost awareness despite scientific scepticism
Beef tallow is surging in popularity across the US, with Whole Foods Market Trends Council naming it the top food trend for 2026. Food fashions often cross the Atlantic, but will European consumers embrace this revival?
America is warming to the beef by-product because of support from the Make America Healthy Again (MAHA) movement, changes to FDA dietary guidance that include beef tallow as an option for cooking, and growing opposition to seed oils. It’s now moving beyond home kitchens and into FMCG products such as Prima protein bars.
The question is how much of that influence will spread beyond America?
“The current US backlash against seed oils is slowly seeping into UK and European consumer awareness,” says food futurologist Dr Morgaine Gaye. “This is all in-keeping with the current interest in less processed food, in general. New consumer interest in beef tallow is even further behind the trend curve but there is a clear momentum towards better quality animal-based products in response to the increased rejection of highly engineered plant-based alternatives.”
What is beef tallow?
Beef tallow is the fat around a cow’s organs that’s been rendered (melted) and strained to remove any leftover meat or tissue and cooled to room temperature. Food-grade tallow can be used for frying, roasting and baking.
Is the trend based in science?
The US rise in beef tallow is not being driven by a change in the scientific consensus, so it may not fly in Europe without the influence of a movement like MAHA.
“The scientific consensus – aka basic scientific evidence – on saturated fat has not changed in recent years, particularly for the major source, which is animal fats (meat and dairy),” says Alice Lichtenstein, professor of nutrition science and policy at Tufts University, US. “But the non-scientific consensus and discourse has changed.”
The European guidance for saturated fats is also unchanged.
The European Food Safety Authority (EFSA) says that saturated fatty acid intake “should be as low as possible”. It published a Scientific Opinion report on fats in 2010, in which it said: ”As the relationship between saturated fatty acids intake and the increase in LDL cholesterol concentrations is continuous, no threshold of saturated fatty acids intake can be defined below which there is no adverse effect".
Seed oils and UPFs
The backlash against seed oils is strong in the US, but it’s across social media and so Europe is not immune. Is the movement justified? There is no scientific justification for recommending the use of beef tallow in place of seed oils, according to Professor Lichtenstein. “The overwhelming bulk of the scientific evidence suggests more favourable outcomes if dietary patterns are high in plant oils and low in animal fats,” she says.
The movement towards ‘real food’ with simpler labelling and fewer UPFs is also a driver for promoting tallow.
“In general, the consumption of UPF category foods is relatively high,” says Professor Lichtenstein. “There are some reasons to recommend limiting them, such as their tendency to be high in salt and added sugar, and frequently being made with refined grains, but the emphasis should be on encouraging a reduction in their intake, rather than including ingredients such as tallow.”
A different relationship with beef
The US is third in the world for beef consumption per capita, behind Argentina and Brazil, whereas only one European country – Luxembourg – features in the top 15.
“Europe may not embrace tallow in the same way as the US because it has a different relationship with beef,” says Neil Shand, CEO of the British Beef Association. “America has always been passionate about beef and less scared of its by-products than Europe.
“That said, GLP-1 drugs have changed the way people look at their diet and they’ve become more interested in protein, so we’ve seen a shift in attitude towards beef and it seems like people are more willing to say that they’re meat consumers. You now see beauty products advertising that they’re made with tallow – even just a few years ago, that wouldn’t have been wise."
Overall, he says, there is potential for the tallow trend to come to Europe, but it will be slower than in the US where there’s greater support for the beef industry.
Could Europe meet demand?
If the trend did take off here, would Europe be able to meet demand? “We haven’t seen an increase in demand yet,” says John Powell, chief executive of the British Meat Processors Association. “If it went up, availability would depend on price.”
The Europe tallow market was valued at $1.17bn in 2023 and is expected to reach $1.77bn by 2031, though this is largely for pet nutrition and fuel.
In the EU, food-grade beef tallow is strictly regulated under Regulation (EC) No 853/2004 and Animal By-Products regulations. To be classified as edible, tallow must be derived exclusively from healthy animals fit for human consumption and processed in approved facilities.
“Most currently goes to rendering for non-food use,” says Powell, “but if consumer demand increases and price with it, processors would make a higher profit on a currently low-value product. The processing of tallow would have to change to make it food-grade, but if the return is good enough, the market will adapt.”
This feeds into another consideration for whether it will take off in Europe and even whether it will continue to rise in the US. Food-grade beef tallow is expensive and still the preserve of wealthier consumers, which is why it’s doing well in outlets such as Whole Foods Market. It’s thought that it won’t transfer quite so well to major supermarkets, making mass market adoption less likely.
A slow burn
There are tallow products already on the market in Europe and a select number of chefs use it in restaurants as it’s known for its rich umami flavour, high smoke point and the crisp textures it can produce.
But the trend for wider use has not yet reached these shores. “We have seen beef tallow emerge as a niche skincare ingredient,” says a spokesperson for the Agriculture and Horticulture Development Board in the UK. “Google searches for beef tallow peaked in 2025 and nearly all searches were in relation to skincare rather than food.”
That’s good news for the bodies that have campaigned against saturated fats and, in terms of health, the science still comes down on the side of unsaturated fats. “There is no benefit to shift from unsaturated fat-rich oils to animal fats and the data are strong that there are disadvantages,” concludes Professor Lichtenstein.
Whether the power of social media and US trends overwhelms that remains to be seen.