Overview
Sunflower seeds are identified by EFSA Cd 2009 within the “oilseeds” category, which ranks among the highest-cadmium food categories in the EFSA European occurrence dataset. Sunflower is itself a well-documented efficient cadmium accumulator, to the point of being studied as a phytoremediation candidate for cadmium-contaminated soils.
Heavy metal contamination profile
Per-analyte snapshot derived from the machine-readable contamination_profile in the frontmatter above. data gap indicates the literature has been reviewed for this commodity-analyte combination and no usable occurrence data was found (a finding, not a placeholder). The Key sources column shows the top 2-3 contributing sources by year and sample size, with numbered wikilink aliases.
| Analyte | Coverage | Typical (ppb) | Confidence | Key sources |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Pb | n=2 | 10–100 | low | 1, 2 |
| Cd | n=6 | 100–500 | medium | 1, 2, 3 |
| iAs | data gap | — | — | — |
| tAs | data gap | — | — | — |
| tHg | n=2 | 1–30 | low | 1, 2 |
| Ni | n=3 | 500–3000 | low | 1, 2, 3 |
| Al | data gap | — | — | — |
| Cr | data gap | — | — | — |
| Sn | data gap | — | — | — |
| U | data gap | — | — | — |
Why this commodity accumulates cadmium
Sunflower (Helianthus annuus) is one of several crop species with documented efficient cadmium uptake from soil, sufficiently so that the species has been investigated as a phytoremediation tool for cadmium-contaminated agricultural and industrial soils. The cadmium taken up by the plant partitions preferentially to the seeds, concentrating in the protein-rich seed tissue rather than staying in stems, leaves, or roots. Regional variation in finished-seed cadmium reflects the soil cadmium at the growing site, and cadmium levels in sunflower seeds from cadmium-rich soils can be materially higher than in seeds from lower-cadmium regions.
Ranges by source, region, and variety
Pending ingest of commodity-level occurrence data. EFSA 2009 Table 1 reports a mean cadmium concentration for oil seeds of 0.227 mg/kg, placing the oilseed category fifth-highest in the EFSA ranking of food commodity means by cadmium concentration. Sunflower-specific values within the oilseed category are expected to be at the upper end given the species’ accumulator profile; confirmation requires dedicated commodity-level ingests.
Processing effects
Pending. Cadmium in sunflower seeds partitions primarily to the protein fraction rather than to the oil fraction during cold-pressing, so sunflower oil typically carries less cadmium than whole seeds by a substantial factor; the press cake (oilseed meal) concentrates the cadmium remaining after oil extraction and is used in animal feed and in some plant-protein products.
Ingredient-derivative risk
Sunflower oil is a relatively low-cadmium derivative because cadmium partitions to the protein-rich press cake during oil extraction. Sunflower meal, sunflower protein concentrate, and sunflower butter (which retains the whole seed) carry cadmium at or above the whole-seed concentration. Plant-based protein products using sunflower protein as a primary ingredient deserve per-product characterization; the concentrating effect of protein isolation can produce derivative products with notably elevated cadmium.
Mitigation options
Pending. Cultivar selection, soil management, and choice of growing region are the primary mitigation levers on the production side. For downstream processors, sourcing from documented lower-cadmium growing regions and choosing oil over meal in formulation are the primary options.
Other metals of concern
Pending dedicated Pb, iAs, tHg, Ni, and Al ingest waves. The contamination_profile YAML block tracks all six metals; commodity-specific narrative for non-cadmium metals will populate when the corresponding source pages are ingested.
Regulatory limits that apply
- Codex Alimentarius — Maximum Levels for Cadmium in Food — Codex matrix-level Cd ML for oilseeds (pending ingest of CXS 193-1995).
- Commission Regulation (EU) 2023/915 cadmium maximum levels — EU Cd maximum level for linseeds and sunflower seeds is 0.50 mg/kg (500 ug/kg); oilseeds generally are 0.10 mg/kg (100 ug/kg), with separate rows for rape seed, peanuts/soybeans, mustard seed, and poppy seed.
References
Works cited in this page’s text, in first-appearance order. This is not the full corpus for this page; it is only what the prose above draws on. The complete set of sources is listed under Sources below. Each title links to its source record, which carries the ingest receipt, the extracted values, and the file hash of the document it was built from.
Sources
Auto-generated from source-page frontmatter. The "Used on this page for" column is populated by the orchestrator's POPULATE-SOURCE-LEGEND action; pending entries appear as *[awaiting synthesis]*.
| # | Citation | Year | Type | Used on this page for |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Shar et al. 2026. Environmental Assessment of Heavy Metal Uptake and Accumulation in Sunflower Seeds, Planta Animalia | 2026 | Peer-reviewed | PK Pb, Cd, Cr, Cu, Zn occurrence in 36 composite sunflower seed samples from different ecological zones of Sindh, Pakistan (n=36) |
| 2 | Muntean et al. 2024. Evaluation of Alternative Sources of Proteins and Other Nutrients with Potential Applications in Fish Nutrition, Molecules | 2024 | Peer-reviewed | RO Al, Ni, tAs, Cd, Pb occurrence in Alternative protein flours for potential fish-nutrition use, including gastropod flours, hepatopancreas flour, sunflower, hemp, flax, pumpkin, coffee grounds,… (n=55) |
| 3 | Tkachuk et al. 2024. Ecological safety of sunflower seeds in the conditions of agricultural intensification, Scientific Horizons | 2024 | Peer-reviewed | UA Pb, Cd, Cu, Zn, tHg occurrence in sunflower seeds and soil under intensive agricultural technology (n=one production batch) |
| 4 | EU 2023. Commission Regulation (EU) 2023/915 of 25 April 2023 on maximum levels for certain contaminants in food and repealing Regulation (EC) No 1881/2006, Official Journal of the European Union | 2023 | Regulation | EU Pb, Cd, tHg, iAs, tAs, Sn concentrations |
| 5 | Nazari et al. 2023. Impacts of Heavy Metals in Seed Crops and Oil Seed on Human Health: A Threat to Food Safety — Review, Carpathian Journal of Food Science and Technology, 15(2), 106-124 | 2023 | Review | Cross-study review of tAs, Pb, Cd, tHg, Ni, and Cr in oilseeds including sunflower with regulatory-gap framing |
| 6 | BfR 2022. Nickel: estimate of long-term intake via food based on the BfR MEAL Study, BfR Communication No. 033/2022 | 2022 | Government report | German MEAL Study Ni concentrations for the legumes-nuts-oilseeds-spices food group encompassing sunflower seeds |
| 7 | FDA 2022. Total Diet Study Report: Fiscal Years 2018-2020 Elements Data, U.S. Food and Drug Administration, Total Diet Study Program | 2022 | Government report | US Pb, Cd, tAs, iAs, tHg, Ni, Cr, U, Sb occurrence in Composite TDS samples across 307 foods (3,241 food/beverage samples + 35 bottled-water samples) collected across six US regions… (n=3276) |
| 8 | Fechner et al. 2022. Results of the BfR MEAL Study: In Germany, mercury is mostly contained in fish and seafood while cadmium, lead, and nickel are present in a broad spectrum of foods, Food Chemistry: X | 2022 | Peer-reviewed | BfR MEAL Study tHg, Cd, Pb, and Ni concentrations in sunflower seeds within the German total-diet panel |
| 9 | Fu et al. 2022. Physiological and Transcriptomic Comparison of Two Sunflower (Helianthus annuus L.) Cultivars With High/Low Cadmium Accumulation, Frontiers in Plant Science | 2022 | Peer-reviewed | Hydroponic Cd stress comparison of two sunflower cultivars; documents cultivar-level variation in root-to-shoot Cd translocation and the NRAMP gene-family driver |
| 10 | EU 2021. Commission Regulation (EU) 2021/1323 of 10 August 2021 amending Regulation (EC) No 1881/2006 as regards maximum levels of cadmium in certain foodstuffs, Official Journal of the European Union (OJ L 288, 11.8.2021, p. 13–18) | 2021 | Regulation | EU Cd concentrations |
| 11 | Gül et al. 2021. Determination of Some Heavy Metals in Oil Sunflower Seeds Grown in the North of Turkey, European Journal of Science and Technology | 2021 | Peer-reviewed | TR Al, Cd, Pb, Ni, Cr, Cu, Zn occurrence in 18 sunflower seed samples from six Middle Black Sea Region sunflower-growing areas (n=18) |
| 12 | Schaefer et al. 2020. Cadmium: Mitigation strategies to reduce dietary exposure, Journal of Food Science | 2020 | Review | FDA-authored Cd mitigation review identifying sunflower seeds among oilseed Cd-accumulators and naming agronomic levers for plant-uptake reduction |
| 13 | Nordberg et al. 2015. Cadmium (Chapter 32), in Handbook on the Toxicology of Metals, Fourth Edition, Volume II: Specific Metals, Academic Press / Elsevier, Amsterdam | 2015 | Textbook chapter | Canonical Cd toxicology chapter identifying sunflower seeds as elevated-Cd oilseeds due to root-soil uptake; Cd partitioning to protein fraction during oil extraction |
| 14 | EFSA 2009. Scientific Opinion of the Panel on Contaminants in the Food Chain on a request from the European Commission on cadmium in food, The EFSA Journal | 2009 | Government report | EFSA CONTAM Cd opinion; sunflower seeds (alongside peanuts) identified as a high-Cd oilseed in the European occurrence dataset |
Update history
The five most recent substantive edits to this page, classified major (evidence or structure moved), correction (a published value or statement was wrong and has been fixed), or minor (narrative rewritten without changing the underlying evidence). Each description is derived from what the edit did to this page; the linked commit is the authoritative record, routine regeneration passes are excluded, and the full version history lives in git. When DOI minting comes online (see schema docs), each entry below will also link to a version-pinned DataCite DOI.
| Commit | Date | Change | Description |
|---|---|---|---|
| a8052bb | 2026-08-09 | major | 1 source added; contamination-profile values revised; 12 sections added |