I want to mention again why I buy ORGANIC Sunflower oil.
Fields of Sunflowers, like Rapeseed, have become a common sight in the countryside in recent years, however I'm not 100% sure if my observations of them growing in France apply everywhere.
Where I live in France, the 'ripened' Sunflower heads are artificially readied for harvest. Rather than let time and sunshine prepare them, they are sprayed with what one farmer friend described as 'a derivative of Agent Orange'. In other words a very nasty chemical. This instantly kills off the plants, which in turn loosens the seeds from the heads, making for a heavier harvest when being 'combined'.
I don't know of any other oil producing seed that is treated similarly.
As soon as I heard about this chemical treatment, I stopped buying ordinary Sunflower oil, and have always bought 'organic' instead. I don't always buy organic products, but in this particular case I shall always do so, and I recommend that you do so too.
Whatever they say, some of this horrible poison must get into the oil. I'm not taking chances. Best to be on the safe side!
45 comments:
Here we use Glyphosate on oilseed rape and legumes. The stuff is considered harmless to mammals. If they aren't sprayed off the stalks clog the combine.
They harvest very high up in France; just the heads. I doubt if there'd be any chance of clogging. Even the smell of the stuff makes me feel ill.
PS. It's nothing like as toxic as Agent Orange.
I agree..it may not be as toxic as...but it is still toxic. They do something similar to tatties as well..so organic oil and tatties for us
Locally produced on a small scale foodstuffs I don't worry so much about but comercially produced I read the labels like a hawk. It also doesn't take much time to read up on all the comercially produced products that you use and besides its your life your dealing with here. I never use sunflower oil but now I got to double check all sunflower products. I sometimes bypass farm shops-stalls that harvest veggies that are close by the busy roadside. Residue from auto emmisions worry me.
We use sunflower oil for frying.....sometimes. Maybe we should stay with olive oil. I bet they use all sorts off sprays here, and never tell us.
They're grown in northern Greece, acres and acres of them
Not just us, but do the birds etc get to read the labels.
I thought Glyphosate was banned?
I didn't know that spuds got the same treatment. Horrible.
We should all read labels much more carefully. My problem is that all the evil info' is written in tiny type.
I've seen them using this stuff right outside our house. When they spray we take the dog indoors and close all the windows.
The birds get to eat the seeds right after they've been sprayed, no wonder their numbers are waning.
I only use olive oil as I rarely fry anything. I hope their methods are safe. I need to look it up.
I use olive oil for cooking and dressings. I wonder what they do to the olives? Bound to be something!
We only ever use rapeseed or olive oils.
I think the harvesting of Olives is quite safe. Whether they are sprayed during their growth period I have no idea.
I do use a lot of Olive oil, both ordinary and 'unrefined'. It's very expensive here in the UK.
I'm not over-keen on the flavour of Rapeseed oil.
I buy "Deluxe" British rapeseed oil from Lidl. I use it a lot in my cooking. To me it is flavourless. However, I have no idea about what if anything is sprayed upon it in the fields prior to harvest.
Roundup isn't and that was glyphosate, it's no as effective as it was years ago but is still available.
All crops are sprayed. Get real. Oranges are sprayed 25 times before harvesting.
I use vegetable oil. I wonder how that's produced. I should maybe investigate.
Maybe I should try again. The last one I had was an 'artisan' produced oil, and had a very pronounced flavour.
A lot of fruit crops are sprayed with Copper Sulphate, which is even accepted by the Organic growers organisation.
It's always good to look, even though the amounts of chemicals are miniscule.
I mostly use olive oil but I have sunflower oil on hand as well. Thanks for the heads up. No more sunflower oil for me. I buy organic fruits and veggies when I see them and the price isn't too inflated. I personally find organic produce has more flavour. I once got my family to do a blind taste test with organic and non organic carrots and the organic carrots definitely won.
If no alternative is available organic farming can use chemical sprays.
I was an organic veg' grower for years, although we never called it that. It was simply how things were done. I really miss my old garden.
Flobabdob.
I mostly use olive oil when cooking, but for (the very occasional) frying, I like peanut oil. I'll bet peanut oil has all kinds of chemical residue. :(
If I could afford to use Olive oil all the time; I would.
Now I see your summer workout as planting harvesting your garden then the pool plunge
Now that my carer makes my meals I shall pass this information on to her.
Organic products always appear to carry less toxin. That said, who knows for sure, unless you are producing the product. Labels do not tell all.
I don't use a great deal of oil, and rarely fry anything, so these days I only buy extra virgin olive oil.
Threw my sunflower oil out after reading about the chemical spray. The same article recommended that the safest oil was olive, preferably extra virgin.
I do hope to have some vegs there, but otherwise we'll be harvesting Apples, Peaches, Pears, and Plums. And hopefully some mushrooms.
I hope she takes note.
Organic farmers are allowed to use Copper Sulphate, but nothing else.
I tend to fry quite a lot, so Olive oil is more important to me than Sunflower.
Said Weed.
"vegetable oil" generally means rapeseed/canola...and the cheaper end of the crop too
I did not know about this and wonder if the same happens in Australia. How would I find out? I rarely use Sunflower oil, mostly I have olive oil.
Copper Sulphate is used to prevent "leaf curl" on stone fruit trees such as peaches and nectarines. I don't know if leaf curl is a problem for the developing fruit, I should look it up. Leaf Curl is when the leaves curl up and develop "blisters".
I would never buy something that simply called itself 'Vegetable oil'. It sounds like some awful mixture of different oils from different continents.
It's used in France for the vines, for potatoes, aubergines, and tomatoes; and a lot more.
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