Sunflower oil becomes a shortage - what does this mean for product labelling?

Among vegetable oils, sunflower oil is an important ingredient in many processed food products. In Europe, Ukraine is not only the "breadbasket" of Europe but one of the major producers of oilseeds for edible oil processing.

In addition to the immediate terrible consequences for the people in the embattled cities, Russia's war against its neighbouring state is having a noticeable impact on the international agricultural market through the destruction of large parts of the infrastructure. Prices for agricultural commodities are rising rapidly and supply shortages are already causing massive problems for many European food producers. In order to secure the supply of food for the population, changes in recipes are therefore inevitably required in the food industry. Sunflower oil must be replaced by other vegetable fats such as soybean oil or rapeseed oil. But forced short-term production changes can subsequently lead to declaration problems if a designated ingredient such as sunflower oil is replaced in whole or in part by another vegetable oil. With a call for help, several companies turned to the regulatory authorities that watch over correct food labelling. The European and national food regulatory authorities need to discuss and decide very quickly how to proceed with regard to food labelling in times of crisis in order to prevent urgently needed foodstuffs from losing their marketability for formal reasons and possibly even having to be destroyed.

Possible solutions include

• flexible and generous enforcement in the case of ingredients that have not been correctly declared due to the war by replacing sunflower oil with other vegetable oils
• temporary permission for consumers to be informed of the changed formulation by means of subsequently applied additional labels
• A medium-term change in the labelling regulation with regard to the declaration of vegetable oil components such as "vegetable oils" or "vegetable oils (sunflower, rapeseed, soy) in variable proportions by weight".

The issue is urgent and, due to the current developments, regrettably can be solved in the long term. In case of a further escalation or even after a peace agreement, the consequences of this nonsensical war will affect the global agricultural trade for a very long time.

YOUR PLUS: AGROLAB VERWEY is the European specialist for quality testing of oilseeds and vegetable oils. Due to the tight markets, inferior qualities are to be expected, which is why particular importance is to be attached to the quality control of oils and fats in the coming months.

Author: Dr. Frank Mörsberger