The Food Standards Agency (FSA) is advising consumers that some food products may now contain other refined or fully refined food grade vegetable oils, despite being labelled as containing sunflower oil. 

As the UK’s supply of sunflower oil continues to be severely impacted by the conflict in Ukraine, further information is being issued to consumers and retailers about oil substitutions and product labelling.  

The FSA have already issued advice to consumers around the use of refined rapeseed oil due to the impact of the conflict in Ukraine on product availability. 

Temporary inaccuracies

Emily Miles, chief executive of the FSA said: “It is an absolute priority for us that food is safe, and what it says it is. If industry decisions are made around the substitutions of these oils, we expect accurate labels to be prepared and printed as soon as possible so that consumers can be confident in the food they buy. Any inaccuracies in labelling must only be temporary.”

Miles said the FSA had carried out a rapid risk assessment on three fully refined oils that the food industry is proposing to use in a variety of products to replace sunflower oil. The risk assessment focused on people with a food allergy, and the immediate food risk from fully refined palm oil and fully refined coconut oil is very low. For fully refined soybean oil the risk is negligible, which means that “allergic reactions to these fully refined vegetable oils are very rare and – if they do occur – are mild.”

She said: “We encourage industry to consider using the healthier and more sustainable oils from this list if substituting their ingredients. Consumers should contact the manufacturer or brand for more information if they are unsure of the content of any product or have concerns about substitution.” 

The FSA said that guidance has been issued to local authorities on the factors they may wish to take into consideration to assist in making “proportionate enforcement decisions on a case-by-case basis and bearing in mind the wider consumer interests.” 

Where substitute oils are used, the FSA said it expects businesses to inform consumers about any related product change, whether that product is purchased in store or online, using, for example, point of sale notices and information on their websites.