Some food products labelled as containing sunflower oil may instead contain refined rapeseed oil as the war in Ukraine affects supplies, the Food Standards Agency (FSA) and Food Standards Scotland (FSS) said. Some manufacturers have had to urgently replace sunflower with refined rapeseed oil before being able to make the change on the label, the agencies said.
The food safety risk of substituting sunflower oil with refined rapeseed oil was “very low”, they added. The majority of the UK’s sunflower oil comes from Ukraine and food businesses here are reporting that supplies are likely to run out in a few weeks, with some businesses already experiencing severe difficulties.
Manufacturers are switching the oils to maintain the supply of certain food products containing ingredients that have become increasingly difficult to source because of the conflict. The FSA and FSS said they were therefore advising that food products labelled as containing sunflower oil may instead have been produced using refined rapeseed oil and consumers should look out for additional information being provided by retailers and manufacturers to stay informed.
