France in Focus

Just been to Super U there is not one bottle of Vegetable oil anywhere, lot of Olive but no veg, local problem or is it effected by the war in the east?

No sunflower oil in our local Intermarchés, since a couple of weeks.

I only use olive oil.

MAD87 wrote: ↑Tue Apr 19, 2022 2:08 pm I only use olive oil.

Mr B (being MasterChef chez nous) shallow fried some homemade chip/wedges last night in Olive Oil - absolutely delicious, we're converted!!

Think Ukraine is a big exporter of sunflower oil, isn't it their national plant. Olive oil was told that it burns at a lower temperature than veg oil.

hughnique wrote: ↑Tue Apr 19, 2022 2:42 pm Think Ukraine is a big exporter of sunflower oil, isn't it their national plant. Olive oil was told that it burns at a lower temperature than veg oil.

They do have differant smoke points, but not that differant, I tend to use Veg for food that I don't want to add any extra flavour, for cold foods and for all Asian cooking I use EV Olive oil, also peanut and walnut if called for, which adds a bit of extra taste, so yes you can cook chips in Olive oil but they will of course take on the flavour of the oil.

Spectrum wrote: ↑Tue Apr 19, 2022 1:40 pm is it effected by the war in the east?

Definitely. Look out for shortages of things made using sunflower oil too - or big price increases.

Empty shelves in Intermarché, here today. And very little olive oil, too.

Being celibataire last week I went shopping & spotted the two remaining 2 x 2l flasks of sunflower oil in our local Intermarche which, having read about it's shortage, I purchased.
My missus returning from the UK laughed when I told her about my 'astute' purchase.
Seems like I might have done the right thing whilst shopping which could be a record

Yes Ukraine is the largest sunflower and sunflower oil producer in Europe, so the war will have an impact.

Re olive oil as a replacement. You can and probably do reuse vegetable, nut and sunflower oils. You should however never reuse olive oil. It is less stable than other oils and will create some oxidation products on heating which can build up to potentially dangerous levels if the oil is reheated to frying temperatures.