How Do Sunflower Seeds Become Oil?

Golden oil shines on your food. How do sunflower seeds become oil? The answer starts inside the seeds, the small parts a sunflower makes that can grow into new plants.

The sunflower already has oil inside its seeds. People get that oil out to use on food. This is one way workers make sunflower oil.

A farmer grows sunflowers in a field. Water and sunlight help the plants grow. In time, each big flower head holds lots of seeds.

The farmer waits while the seeds finish growing and the flower heads turn brown. The seeds lose water as they dry. The farmer needs ripe, dry seeds for making oil.

Now the farmer drives a harvesting machine through the field to collect the seeds. With the machine, the farmer separates them from the dry flower heads. These little seeds have black shells.

At the oil workshop, a worker cleans the seeds. Using cleaning equipment, the worker takes away bits of stalk and other things from the field. Only cleaned seeds move along.

Next comes a press, a machine for squeezing oil out of seeds. The worker gets the press ready. What do you think will come out when the worker squeezes those oily seeds?

The worker uses the press to squeeze the seeds tightly. Out comes oil that was already inside! The worker keeps the moving parts safely behind their covers while running the press.

The worker collects the oil from the press in a container. Pieces of squeezed seed stay behind. Squeezing lets oil out, but it does not turn the whole seed into liquid.

The oil still has tiny seed pieces mixed into it. The worker pours it through a filter, something that catches small solid pieces while letting liquid through.

With the filter, the worker separates those little pieces from the oil. The worker collects oil underneath the filter. Now fewer seed bits float in the golden liquid.

The worker fills clean bottles with oil and closes them. Bottles help people carry oil to kitchens. A cook pours a little onto salad.

Grow seeds, dry, harvest, clean, press, filter, bottle, then food. Workers get sunflower oil by squeezing the oil already inside seeds with a press and passing it through a filter.

You can carry this little sunflower story with you into your next meal.