BRC calls for better labelling for products containing sunflower oil

The British Retail Consortium (BRC) has requested a labelling pragmatism for products containing sunflower oil due to the lack of availability of the ingredient following Russia’s Invasion of Ukraine.

“Fraud thrives in these types of unfortunate circumstances and pragmatism will give our members the flexibility to source other available oils, while retaining all the controls and checks necessary to keep consumers safe and maintain product availability,” BRC said in a statement.

When changing labels, retailers will look to replace the reference to sunflower oil in the ingredient list for the following: “Vegetable oils followed immediately by a list of indications of specific vegetable origin and may be followed by the phrase ‘in varying proportions”.

“We have been in discussions with Government and enforcement agencies to find a pragmatic approach giving information to consumers where different oils need to be substituted at short notice and may differ from those labelled,” the BRC director of food policy Andrew Opie said.

“Our briefing gives you the best guidance on what food businesses should do.”

Businesses must communicate the substitution of ingredients in the label change, not doing so will result in a food safety risk. 

In cases where sunflower oil is substituted with an oil derived from an allergenic ingredient (unless exempt e.g., fully refined soya oil), a label change reflecting this substitution is required, BRC said, adding that not doing so will result in a food safety risk and this is not acceptable.

BRC further added that businesses will need to consider how to provide information about the substitution or indeed make a decision not to sell the product.

BRC has also urged makers not to use the words shortage / global shortage or equivalent to avoid concerning consumers and panic buying.

BRC’s statement comes a day after it emerged that some food businesses have reported to food safety agencies that they are switching to refined rapeseed oil as ingredient in certain food products instead of sunflower oil, due to the impact of the conflict in Ukraine on product availability.