Sunflower oil

Listed nutrients, per 100 g

For each nutrient, the value this page uses is marked “used”. A row marked “second database” is another database’s figure for a matching food, kept so you can see how far databases disagree (they can differ in the samples analysed, lab methods and rounding). Its own cells are worked out from it, but none of the page’s words or scores are.

Change the amount to rescale the first column. Nutrients a database doesn't list are missing, not zero.

Hazard rows as the dataset rates them

• Glycidyl esters (glycidol) · Nothing to watch: doesn’t double average intake · No cap: glycidol is a genotoxic carcinogen with no safe threshold, judged by margin of exposure (EFSA 2016: T25 10.2 mg/kg body weight/day; a margin of 25,000 or higher is low concern). A serving carries 2.88 µg, 0.0412 µg/kg body weight/day, a margin of 247,682 on its own. The average adult takes in 0.2-0.3 µg/kg body weight/day (EFSA 2016, middle bound), a margin of 51,000 to 34,000, and a serving adds 14-21% to it, short of doubling (the highest single analysis, 452 ng/g, would add up to 30%). Health Canada pilot survey, Ottawa retail, 2011 and 2013. · DOI 10.1016/j.jfca.2014.09.002 · B
• Glycidyl esters (glycidol) · Nothing to watch: doesn’t double average intake · No cap: glycidol is a genotoxic carcinogen with no safe threshold, judged by margin of exposure (EFSA 2016: T25 10.2 mg/kg body weight/day; a margin of 25,000 or higher is low concern). A serving of sunflower seed oil carries 2.48 µg, 0.035 µg/kg body weight/day, a margin of 288,195 on its own. The average adult takes in 0.2-0.3 µg/kg body weight/day (EFSA 2016, middle bound), a margin of 51,000 to 34,000, and a serving adds 12-18% to it, short of doubling. European data (542 results, 20% below detection), shown beside the Canadian figures, not averaged with them. · DOI 10.2903/j.efsa.2016.4426 · A
• 3-MCPD and its esters · Nothing to watch: under the limit · No cap: the tolerable daily intake for 3-MCPD and its fatty acid esters is 2 µg/kg body weight/day (EFSA 2018), 140 µg a day for 70 kg. About 758 g of sunflower oil eaten alone in a day would reach it (551 g at the highest single analysis, 254 ng/g). A serving carries 1.70 µg, 1.2% of it, and adds 3.5-12.2% to the average adult's 0.2-0.7 µg/kg body weight/day (14-49 µg/day), which is under half the limit. Health Canada pilot survey, two brands bought in Ottawa in 2011 and 2013. One result under the 100 ng/g reporting limit is used as listed, which changes little. · DOI 10.1016/j.jfca.2014.09.002 · B
• 3-MCPD and its esters · Nothing to watch: under the limit · No cap: the tolerable daily intake for 3-MCPD and its fatty acid esters is 2 µg/kg body weight/day (EFSA 2018), 140 µg a day for 70 kg. EFSA's European mean for sunflower seed oil (596 results) is 521 µg/kg, so about 269 g of oil eaten alone in a day would reach it (93 g at the 95th percentile, 1510 µg/kg). A serving carries 4.80 µg, 3.4% of it, and adds 9.8-34.3% to the average adult's 0.2-0.7 µg/kg body weight/day (14-49 µg/day), which is under half the limit. European data, shown beside the Canadian figures, not averaged with them. The mean is 2.8 times the Canadian retail mean for the same oil type (185 ng/g). · DOI 10.2903/j.efsa.2016.4426 · A
• Mineral oil aromatic hydrocarbons (MOAH) · Nothing to watch: rated by margin of exposure · No cap: MOAH (mineral oil aromatic hydrocarbons) has no safe threshold and is judged by margin of exposure, using EFSA 2023's surrogate reference point of 0.49 mg/kg body weight/day for the 3+-ring fraction; a margin of 10,000 or higher is low concern. A serving carries 1.4-14.8 µg MOAH. If 10% of MOAH is 3+-ring (EFSA's first scenario) the serving's own margin is 23,132 at the upper bound; at 1% (second scenario), 231,318. Against EFSA's adult average total-MOAH exposure of 0.0004 to 0.006 mg/kg body weight/day, a serving adds 0.33-53.0%, short of doubling; the range is wide because it pairs the serving's lowest figure with the highest background and its highest with the lowest. European data (edible sunflower oil, 519 samples, 92% below detection), not Canadian retail. · DOI 10.2903/j.efsa.2023.8215 · B
• Mineral oil saturated hydrocarbons (MOSH) · Context · Context hazard (EFSA 2023 no-observed-adverse-effect level (NOAEL) 236 mg/kg body weight/day; 'present dietary exposure to mineral oil saturated hydrocarbons (MOSH) does not raise concern'): a serving = 0.035-0.062 mg = 0.00050-0.00088 mg/kg body weight/day; MoE against the NOAEL 267,717-473,272. No cap. · DOI 10.2903/j.efsa.2023.8215 · B
• Trans fats · Context · Shown as context, not rated: WHO (2023) advises no more than 1% of total energy from trans fat, and Health Canada's public-health objective is less than 1%; on a 2,000 kcal diet that is 2.22 g a day. A serving carries 0.011 g, 0.5% of it. This is the trans fat formed when oil is refined, not from partially hydrogenated oil; Health Canada's 2017 notice puts non-hydrogenated refined oils at generally less than 2% of the oil. · US food database (USDA Foundation Foods) · C
• Vitamin K and warfarin · Worth knowing · Flagged for people on warfarin, as the label puts it: keep vitamin K intake consistent, not avoid. Sunflower oil is a poor source of vitamin K1 next to soybean and canola oils, which the Institute of Medicine puts above 100 µg per 100 g (2001). A serving of sunflower oil carries about 0.6 µg of vitamin K1, against an adequate intake of 120 µg a day for men and 90 for women. A flag for consistency, not a cap. · US food database (USDA Foundation Foods) · C

Oxalate, phytate and gut-tolerance measurements

• fodmap total: no FODMAPs by composition (an oil is ~100% fat, no carbohydrate); no search made (wave-4 brief) not stated in the draft · as sold · as sold · grade C · US food database (USDA SR Legacy)
• histamine: none found not stated in the draft · as sold · as sold · grade C · PubMed query:

Sources

• Public Health England, Composition of Foods Integrated Dataset (CoFID) 2021
  cofid-2021 · dataset · Open Government Licence v3.0
• Becalski A, Feng S, Lau BP-Y, Zhao T. A pilot survey of 2- and 3-monochloropropanediol and glycidol fatty acid esters in foods on the Canadian market 2011-2013. J Food Compos Anal 2015;37:58-66 (Health Canada) · doi:10.1016/j.jfca.2014.09.002
  doi:10.1016/j.jfca.2014.09.002 · full text read · Crown copyright; open-science.canada.ca copy
• EFSA CONTAM Panel. Risks for human health related to the presence of 3- and 2-monochloropropanediol (MCPD), and their fatty acid esters, and glycidyl fatty acid esters in food. EFSA Journal 2016;14(5):4426 · doi:10.2903/j.efsa.2016.4426
  doi:10.2903/j.efsa.2016.4426 · abstract only · abstract on a university repository page
• EFSA CONTAM Panel. Update of the risk assessment of mineral oil hydrocarbons in food. EFSA J 2023;21(9):e08215 · doi:10.2903/j.efsa.2023.8215 · PMID 37711880
  doi:10.2903/j.efsa.2023.8215 · full text read · CC BY
• USDA FoodData Central, Foundation Foods, release 2026-04-30
  fdc-foundation-2026-04-30 · dataset · CC0 1.0 (public domain)
• USDA FoodData Central, SR Legacy, 2018-04
  fdc-sr-legacy-2018-04 · dataset · CC0 1.0 (public domain)
• PubMed query: (histamine OR "biogenic amines" OR tyramine) AND (vegetable oil OR "edible oils" OR "soybean oil" OR "sunflower oil"), 20 results, none relevant
  pubmed-query-histamine-oils · secondary source · licence not recorded

Body map 2026-10-25.1: each nutrient’s job comes from an agency fact sheet, linked beside it under Good for.

The plain words: “a lot” means one serving (100 g when the food has no serving size) gives at least 20% of the daily amount (the reference intake), “some” at least 10%, “a little” at least 2% (the cut-offs are ours, one set for every page: 20% and 10% are borrowed from the US labelling terms “high” and “good source” and applied to Health Canada’s daily amount, whereas Health Canada’s own shopper rule says 15%; provisional: they may change in a later method version). The daily amount is Health Canada’s Dietary Reference Intake for adults 19–30; where men and women need different amounts we use the higher one (protein: 56 g for men, 46 g for women). The percentage printed under each nutrient is the printed amount as a share of that daily amount, rounded to the nearest whole number, and the word is read from that percentage, so the amount, the percentage and the word always agree. Calcium with a measured absorption is scaled by how well it gets in compared with milk.

The scale: “Nothing to watch” means a serving a day stays under the limit at ordinary amounts; “Go easy” means a serving a day can push past the limit for adults who already take in the most, or fewer than 2 servings reach it; “Limit it” means once a week or less. The dataset’s own rating is under “How we got this”. Provisional: the scale may change in a later method version.

Measured absorption under Good for: grade-A studies in adults that tested this preparation of this food, as a share of the listed amount (the share digested, for protein), quoted once each source has passed our evidence check; animal studies and other variants stay in the table above. Provisional: this screen may change in a later method version.