(BRUSSELS) - Some 40,000 tonnes of Ukrainian sunflower oil headed for shops in the European Union was deliberately contaminated with mineral oil, a European Commission expert said Monday.

"Mineral oil was deliberately added" to sunflower oil from Ukraine which arrived in France on seven ships and was also distributed to Italy, the Netherlands and Spain, said the expert, who spoke on condition of anonymity.

The official could not provide details about the exact nature of the contamination or who might have been responsible.

A commission spokesman said "tracing is going on" and underlined that the level of contamination was not "sufficient to cause acute health problems".

Acting Friday on an alert from France, Spain's food safety agency warned against consuming sunflower oil over fears that it could be contaminated with hydrocarbons, although Madrid said there was no health risk.

While the agency lifted the warning Monday, after ensuring the batch from Ukraine was removed from the market, some supermarket chains had already taken all brands of sunflower seed oil using oil from the Ukraine off their shelves.

France said Saturday that it had pulled 2,600 tonnes of oil from its market.

In 1981, rapeseed oil adulterated with aniline, a coal tar extract, sold in Spain was blamed for the deaths of hundreds of people. It was sold as olive oil in working-class neighbourhoods of Madrid and several other cities.

Sunflower oil is the most popular cooking oil in Spain after olive oil.

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