RON CARDWELL: RTI / THE GREAT SEED OIL DEBATE

Ron Cardwell, Director of Commodity Strategy at Restaurant Technologies (RTI), runs point on cooking oil for the company that pioneered automated oil management — the closed-loop system that delivers fresh oil and pulls used oil out of more than 40,000 restaurants. We get into the seed oil debate, allergen myths, beef tallow's comeback, and what actually happens to the used oil in your fryer.

Ron's nickname is "The Oil Nerd." He earned it. He started in soybean processing out of college, fell in love with how oil touches every corner of food and energy, and has been deep in commodity strategy ever since. RTI moves more than 700 million pounds of fresh oil into restaurants every year and pulls hundreds of millions of pounds of used oil back out — and almost all of it ends up as renewable diesel, biodiesel, or sustainable aviation fuel.

We dig into how operators should actually think about oil — flavor, function, and price, in that order, not the other way around. Why "buy the cheapest" is a trap that costs you more in turnover and bad food. The seed oil vs. beef tallow debate — what's signal and what's noise, what the real trade-offs are on flavor, supply, and price when you switch. The allergen question that comes up at every front-of-house every week — and why a fully refined and deodorized oil doesn't carry the allergen at all (Ron settles this one on tape). What pourable beef tallow actually is and why it exists. Why high-oleic crop breeding is changing what "stable frying oil" even means. The full-circle history — beef tallow → saturated fat fear → trans fats → seed oil blends → consumers asking for tallow back. And the part of Ron's job he loves most: turning used fryer oil into renewable diesel at roughly 20% the carbon intensity of conventional diesel.

Socials and Links:

Website: www.rti-inc.com

RTI 2025 Impact Report: https://www.rti-inc.com/blog/restaurant-technologies-recycled-more-than-390-million-lbs-of-uco-in-2025/

Ron Cardwell Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/ronald-cardwell-21a7531a6/

CHAPTERS / TIMESTAMPS

00:00 — Intro and welcome: Ron Cardwell, Director of Commodity Strategy at Restaurant Technologies

01:31 — How Ron earned the nickname "The Oil Nerd"

02:44 — Why oil is one of three core nutrition components — and the most functional

03:49 — What "Director of Commodity Strategy" actually means day-to-day

05:09 — Quick recap of RTI's closed-loop oil system (referencing Ep 17 with Diana)

05:24 — The most dangerous job in a kitchen — and why bulk delivery eliminates it

07:12 — Jeff's experience as a former RTI customer

08:32 — RTI's 2025 Impact Report — released Earth Day, recycling stats

09:36 — Choosing oil: the three variables operators actually need to weigh

11:24 — The trap of buying the cheapest oil

12:13 — Flavor profiles by oil type — neutral vs. flavored oils

14:39 — The allergen question — settled on tape

16:15 — How operators (and customers) can verify allergen status — the supplier statement

18:32 — The seed oil vs. beef tallow debate — what's signal, what's noise

21:03 — Switching to tallow — flavor, supply, and price reality

24:58 — Why beef tallow is a byproduct, not a planned crop — supply ceiling

27:13 — Beef tallow handling — the solid block, the cleanup, the pourable version

29:23 — Glass vs. plastic and why dark storage matters more than the bottle

30:30 — Sustainability: where the used oil actually goes

32:58 — Where the oil category goes next — high-oleic, crop breeding, consumer demand

35:59 — The full circle: tallow → saturated fat fear → trans fats → blends → tallow comeback

37:20 — The one thing every operator should change Monday morning

37:55 — How to actually monitor oil quality day-to-day — smell, taste, look

38:55 — Where to find Ron and RTI — NRA Show, rti-inc.com

39:35 — Wrap up

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