(BRUSSELS) - The European Commission blocked Friday imports of Ukrainian sunflower oil into the EU until Kiev puts a strict system of checks place, after tainted product was found in the bloc last month.

"Sunflower oil originating in, or consigned from, Ukraine shall not enter the EU unless a valid certificate and results of sampling and analysis for the presence of mineral oil accompany the sunflower oil consignments," it said.

The EU's executive body said in a statement that the certification process would only become valid once it has checked and formally accepted the system.

"The commission shall reassess the situation within one year," it said.

It will also ask the 27 EU nations to test Ukrainian oil samples.

The move came after some 40,000 tonnes of Ukrainian sunflower oil imports into Europe were found to be contaminated with mineral oil at the end of April.

Authorities insist the hydrocarbon contamination is not potent enough to threaten public health, but the affair has created major problems in Greece, where 30 percent of cooking oil is sunflower oil.

Greek inspectors this month ordered the recall or seizure of almost 3,000 tonnes of imported Ukrainian sunflower oil, but subsequent tests found another 3,060-tonne consignment to be similarly tainted.

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