Sunday, 24 April 2022

The Chips Are Down?

The Ukraine and Russia are two of the largest producers of sunflower oil. The war in Ukraine has obviously made growing and exporting this crop, exceedingly difficult. In the UK, sunflower oil has, consequently, greatly increased in price. Many UK supermarkets are now rationing this oil's sale to their customers. It has even been reported that many 'food' manufacturers are changing the oils they use (https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-61193141?msclkid=ff7294d8c3a911eca5e7b9ce6187e713). To maintain production, manufacturers of chips (the Brits call them 'crisps'), are cooking the potato slices in rape seed or palm oil. This is, in spite of, palm oil having become somewhat 'disapproved', on environmental grounds. The change of oil, will apparently slightly change the flavour of the chips/crisps. This hardly seems life-threatening. The predicted, 30-40% hike in food prices is, however, an entirely different matter.

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