Sunflower seed: Classes

Classes

There are two classes of sunflower seeds: Confectionary and Oil.

• Confectionary sunflower seeds typically have dark grey hulls with whitish portions along the edges, or white stripes or blotches. They are larger than Oil sunflower seeds.
• Oil sunflower seeds have hulls that are almost solid black in colour, although faint stripes may be visible. They are smaller than Confectionary sunflower seeds.

The class of sunflower seed forms part of the grade name; for example,

Sunflower seed, No. 1 Canada Confectionary.

The method of determining the class of sunflower seed is by size and the colour of the sunflower seed hull.