Seed oils on food labels: how to spot them

Plenty of people want to know whether a product contains seed oils. The ingredient list has the answer, but the names are not always obvious. This guide explains what the term usually covers and how to find it on a label. It does not tell you whether you should avoid them; that is your call.

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What people mean by seed oils

"Seed oils" is an informal phrase, not an official food category. It usually refers to oils pressed from the seeds of plants, most often:

• sunflower oil (including high oleic sunflower oil)
• rapeseed oil, and canola oil, which is a rapeseed variety bred in Canada
• soybean (soya) oil
• corn (maize) oil, pressed from the germ of the kernel
• cottonseed oil
• safflower oil
• grapeseed oil
• rice bran oil, from the outer layer of the rice grain

Not everyone draws the line in the same place. Corn and rice bran oil are not strictly seeds, but most lists include them. Sesame, peanut and flaxseed oils sit in a gray area, and some lists leave them out. Oils from fruit, such as olive, palm, coconut and avocado, are not usually included. If you follow a particular list, check which oils it names.

Names to look for on an ingredient list

Look for the oil's own name, written in a few ways:

• "sunflower oil", "sunflower seed oil", "high oleic sunflower oil"
• "rapeseed oil" (common in the UK and EU) or "canola oil" (common in North America)
• "soybean oil" or "soya oil"
• "corn oil", "maize oil", "cottonseed oil", "safflower oil", "grapeseed oil", "rice bran oil"

Ingredients are listed in order of weight, heaviest first. An oil near the start of the list makes up more of the product than one near the end. Oils also sit inside other ingredients, written in brackets, for example "mayonnaise (rapeseed oil, egg yolk)". Read the brackets, not just the main names.

Watch for look-alikes. Sunflower seeds, sunflower kernels and sunflower lecithin are not oils, so they do not count by the usual definition.

The problem with "vegetable oil"

Some labels just say "vegetable oil". In the EU, the label has to name the plant the oil comes from, for example "vegetable oil (sunflower)". In other countries the rules differ. In the US, for example, the oils should be named, but where the maker switches between oils the label may list several with "and/or" or "contains one or more of the following", so you cannot tell which one is in a given pack.

When the label does not name the source, the label alone cannot tell you. You can ask the manufacturer, or choose a product that names its oil.

Where they turn up

Oils in this group are common in packaged foods that need a neutral fat. Typical places include:

• mayonnaise, salad dressings and sauces
• crisps or chips, crackers and biscuits
• baked goods and pastry
• spreads and margarines
• frozen and fried foods
• roasted or flavored nuts and snack mixes
• hummus, pesto and other dips

Brand claims such as "made with olive oil" do not always mean the product has no other oil. Check the full list.

Tips for checking in the shop

• Read the whole list, including the text in brackets.
• Check again after a recipe change. Makers switch oils without much notice.
• Do not rely on the front of the pack. Look at the ingredients.
• If the list is long and the print is tiny, a phone can read it faster than you can.

Fineprint shows facts and checks them against rules you choose. It is not medical, allergy or dietary advice. Always read the pack.

Doing it with Fineprint

Fineprint checks products against rules you choose. The Seed oils rule is one of them. It flags sunflower, rapeseed (canola), soybean, corn, cottonseed, grapeseed, safflower and rice bran oil.

1. Open the My rules tab and switch on Seed oils. The free version lets you pick three rules; Pro turns on all 39.
2. Open the Scan tab and point the camera at the barcode. You can also choose a Barcode photo, tap Type barcode, or use the Search tab to find a product by name.
3. Fineprint looks the product up in Open Food Facts and opens it. If it matches your rule, the ingredient list highlights the exact words that caused the match, so you can read them in context.
4. If the product is not in the database, tap Read a label, take or choose a photo of the ingredient list, check the text it read and tap Check ingredients. The photo is read on your iPhone and is never uploaded.
5. Every product you open is saved in History, which works offline.

Fineprint matches words on the label. It does not flag a generic "vegetable oil", because the label does not say which oil it is, and it ignores seeds, kernels and lecithin. Product data comes from Open Food Facts, which volunteers maintain, so data can be missing or out of date. Fineprint tells you when it could not check everything. If a match looks odd, the highlighted text shows you why.

There is more on how rules work on the help page.

Related guides

• What are E numbers in food?What an E number is, how the ranges work, why natural and synthetic additives both have them, and how to look one up.
• What is ultra-processed food? NOVA groups explainedWhat the term means, what the four NOVA groups are, and how it differs from a nutrition score.

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