Is Safflower Oil GMO?

Safflower oil is being used more and more in food manufacturing in recent years. Many natural products are being made with safflower and/or sunflower oil.

As a result, many consumers are asking the question: Is safflower oil GMO or non-GMO?

Good question. We’d like to help answer it for you.

The Short Answer

Safflower Oil is naturally non-GMO. So you don’t have to worry about finding a non-GMO alternative safflower oil (like how you would search for a non-GMO canola oil). All safflower oil is naturally non-GMO to begin with.

The Long Answer

Safflower Oil is made from the safflower plant (Carthamus tinctorius L.) a prickly branched thistle that grows in dry climates. This plant has tall stems with bright yellow, orange and red flowers at the end. Inside each of these flowers is 15-20 small seeds, which is what is pressed to produce oil.

This is one very prickly thistle, apparently. One farmer put it to me like this, as I was regally gazing out into his safflower fields, “Go take a run through that with your pants off. You won’t come out happy”. Duly noted sir.

Curious what other oils are naturally non-GMO? Here’s a look at the “industry standards” for each type of oil. You can see which you can buy and be GMO free, and which you’ll need to find specially labeled as the non-GMO version.