US cooking oil market shrinking due to Ice pressures on Latino households, Mazola owner says

Associated British Foods said Hispanic customers typically used cooking oil three times before throwing it away. Photograph: miniseries/Getty

The US cooking oil market is shrinking and unlikely to improve soon because of economic and immigration enforcement pressures on Latino households, the owner of the Mazola brand has said.

George Weston, the chief executive of Associated British Foods (ABF), told City analysts that cooking oil sales had suffered as “our heavy use consumer is that Hispanic population who are under financial pressure, who are under pressure from Ice [Immigration and Customs Enforcement] and are feeling a bit miserable”.