Viral fry reviews, headline-making menu changes, and $1.1 billion in tallow food product sales in 2026 have pushed beef tallow back into the spotlight, and diners are paying attention.1
For a fast-growing restaurant brand, that buzz can feel like a signal to act. But what plays well on a phone screen doesn’t always translate to the fryer or the loading dock, and it rarely accounts for what happens at the fiftieth location. Before you follow the trend, it’s worth asking the harder questions that decide whether a switch strengthens your operation or strains it.
Why More Restaurant Chains Are Taking a Fresh Look at Beef Tallow
Beef tallow never fully disappeared, but it’s back in the conversation with real force. Steak ‘n Shake announced in January 2025 that all 436 of its U.S. restaurants would fry shoestring fries in 100% all-natural beef tallow.2 This is a move which its chief supply chain officer called “an authentic way … to achieve the highest quality and best taste.”
Consumer perceptions are shifting as well. Whole Foods Market’s Trends Council named “Tallow Takeover” the top food trend in its 2026 forecast, and a vocal online backlash against seed oils has turned cooking oil into a front-of-house talking point.3
Together, these shifts suggest that interest in beef tallow is moving beyond a niche food trend and into real restaurant decision-making. As more diners become aware of the oils used to prepare their food, restaurant brands may see new reasons to reconsider what belongs in their fryers. But introducing a different cooking oil across one or hundreds of locations has implications for everything from menu fit and kitchen workflows to supply and consistency. Those are the factors worth evaluating before making a change.
Start With Your Menu, Not the Trend
Before introducing beef tallow into your kitchen, consider how it will perform across the foods you serve every day. Your menu, cooking methods, flavor profiles, and product mix all play a role in determining whether tallow is a practical fit.
Beef tallow’s rich, savory flavor can complement fries, potatoes, and other menu items where a deeper flavor profile fits naturally with the concept. That same distinct beef flavor may be less suitable for foods where guests expect a more neutral taste. Restaurants should consider the full range of products that share their fryers and whether switching oils would enhance those items consistently or introduce an unwanted flavor.
Guest expectations are another important part of that evaluation. Using an animal-derived cooking fat can affect vegetarian and vegan menu options, as well as how certain dishes need to be communicated to diners. Before making a change, review which menu items would be cooked in tallow, who regularly orders them, and whether those guests have dietary or ingredient expectations that could be affected. From there, determine whether tallow makes sense across your frying program or only for select products where its flavor and positioning add clear value.
Evaluate How the Switch Could Affect Kitchen Operations
Once you’ve determined where beef tallow makes sense on the menu, the next step is understanding what the change would require from your kitchen. Tallow has different handling, heating, filtration, and cleaning considerations that can affect existing routines and equipment.
- Temperature: Because tallow solidifies at room temperature, fryers may take longer to heat at the start of the day. Can your opening routines accommodate additional warm-up time without affecting prep or service?
- Residue: End-of-night residue can be thicker, adding another consideration to fryer cleaning and maintenance. Would your current closing procedures, staffing, or cleaning schedule need to change?
- Filtration: Tallow should be filtered while it’s still hot, and some portable filtration equipment isn’t rated for solid fats. Consistent Fryer Oil Filtration helps protect food quality and the value of your cooking oil. Is your existing filtration equipment compatible with tallow, and can your team consistently follow the required process?
- Day-to-day operations: Oil life, employee training, and daily execution can all change when introducing a different cooking oil. What new procedures would need to be documented, trained, and standardized across your locations?
None of this makes tallow a bad option, but it does mean that any transition should fit your existing workflows instead of fighting them shift after shift.
Consider the Supply Chain Behind the Switch
Excitement often outpaces planning here. Beef tallow can come with higher costs than commonly used seed oils, while current supply conditions can also create additional sourcing and availability considerations. Wholesale beef tallow runs roughly $1.00 to $1.50 per pound, compared with $0.60 to $0.70 for canola or soybean oil. Demand from food and biofuel buyers, paired with a U.S. cattle herd the USDA reports is at its lowest level in 75 years, has kept prices volatile.4
A tallow pilot may run smoothly across a handful of locations where teams can closely manage inventory, ordering, and costs. As the program expands, the same supply needs have to be met reliably across different markets and a much larger network of restaurants.
Operators should understand whether suppliers can support projected volume, how pricing could affect food costs over time, and what contingencies are available if demand or availability changes. A dependable Cooking Oil Delivery program can help support that consistency as the footprint grows, making supply planning an important part of the decision from the start.
Think About Consistency Across Every Location
As a restaurant brand grows, maintaining the same food quality and execution across every kitchen becomes increasingly important. With beef tallow, consistency depends on how each location stores, heats, filters, and manages the cooking fat throughout the day. Variations in those routines can affect oil condition, fryer performance, and ultimately what reaches the guest.
Before expanding tallow across locations, establish clear standards for storage and handling, fryer temperatures, filtration frequency, oil replacement, and end-of-day cleaning. Teams should also have visibility into fresh oil usage and used oil volumes so operators can identify when one location is handling tallow differently from the rest. The systems supporting Oil Rendering Tanks and safe Cooking Oil Disposal should be evaluated as part of that process, particularly because tallow behaves differently as it cools and solidifies.
The Best Oil Strategy Supports More Than Today’s Trends
Choosing a cooking oil is only the beginning. Once it enters the kitchen, it becomes part of the daily rhythm of receiving, storing, frying, filtering, cleaning, and disposal across every location. The strongest oil strategies account for how those processes will perform over time as menus evolve, teams change, and restaurant footprints grow.
For restaurants considering beef tallow, the oil itself is only one part of the transition. Restaurant Technologies’ Automated Cooking Oil Management system is designed to handle tallow in select markets, giving operators a way to incorporate it into an automated oil management program rather than building a separate manual process around it. Depending on local availability, RTI can work with restaurant teams to evaluate their kitchen setup, expected oil volume, and service needs to determine whether tallow can be supported as part of their existing or planned oil program.
If beef tallow is part of your restaurant’s next move, Restaurant Technologies can help you determine what implementation could look like across your kitchens. Connect with our team to discuss tallow availability in your market, explore your oil management needs, and request a free consultation.
Sources
- Food Dive. Beef tallow takeover? Big food companies begin to embrace MAHA ingredient. https://www.fooddive.com/news/beef-tallow-takeover-big-food-companies-begin-to-embrace-maha-ingredient/815598/.
- PR Newswire. Steak n Shake to Use 100% Beef Tallow. https://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/steak-n-shake-to-use-100-beef-tallow-302353474.html.
- Whole Foods Market. The Next Big Things: Our Top Food Trend Predictions for 2026. https://www.wholefoodsmarket.com/trends/the-next-big-things-our-top-8-food-trend-predictions-for-2026.
- QSR. Why Beef Tallow is Back on the Menu in 2025. https://www.qsrmagazine.com/story/why-beef-tallow-is-back-on-the-menu-in-2025/.
