To examine correlates of home usage of commercially available cooking fats in Bogotá, Colombia and to determine their fatty acid composition.

Cross-sectional survey.

Bogotá, Colombia.

A representative sample of low- and middle-income families (n 2408).

The types of fat primarily used for cooking at home were mixed vegetable oils (66 %), sunflower oil (21 %) and other oils/fats including margarine (13 %). In multivariate analysis, usage of sunflower oil as the primary cooking fat was positively related to home ownership, age of the father and health as a reason for choosing the main cooking fat, and inversely associated with the number of people per room and an index of household food insecurity. The trans fat content of sunflower oil was unexpectedly higher (mean 4·2 %, range 2·2–8·6) than that of the vegetable mixture oils (mean 3·1 %, range 1·1–6·5).

Vegetable oils are the primary home cooking fats in Bogotá, Colombia. Higher socio-economic status is associated with usage of sunflower oil. Paradoxically, oblivious to the higher trans content of sunflower oil and the negligible amount of n-3 fatty acids, families commonly reported ‘health’ as a reason to choose sunflower over other oils.