Description

Sunflower meal is the by-product of the extraction of oil from sunflower seeds. In terms of production, it is the 4th most important oil meal after soybean meal, rapeseed meal, and cottonseed meal. A wide variety of products are available on the market, from low-quality straw-like meals to high-quality flours. Sunflower meals can be made from whole or decorticated seeds and can be mechanically and/or solvent-extracted. The quality of sunflower meal depends on the plant characteristics (seed composition, hulls/kernel ratio, dehulling potential, growth and storage conditions) and on the processing (dehulling, mechanical and/or solvent extraction). While solvent-extracted sunflower meal remains the main type of sunflower meal commercially available, oil-rich sunflower meals obtained by mechanical pressure only have become more popular since the 2000s, with the development of organic farming and on-farm oil production.