Nutrition Facts: Organic Raw Sunflower Seed Butter

October 10, 2026

Our Organic Raw Sunflower Seed Butter is stone-milled without heating the seeds, so you get the full flavour. The seeds are organic and grown in Europe, and there's only one ingredient in the jar: 100% organic sunflower seeds. Nothing else.

Nutrition per 100g

Energy: 2662kJ / 644kcal
Fat: 57g (saturates 6g, monounsaturates 10.8g, polyunsaturates 37.5g, trans fats 0g)
Carbohydrate: 9.1g (sugar 1.5g)
Protein: 18g
Salt: 0g

What each figure tells you

Energy. Labels show kilojoules and kilocalories side by side, which are simply two units for the same thing. The number is worked out from the nutrients, using fixed values per gram: 37kJ for fat, and 17kJ for carbohydrate and for protein. Fat is the most energy-packed nutrient (the NHS gives 9kcal a gram, against 4kcal for carbohydrate and protein), so in a butter made from oil-rich seeds it supplies most of the energy. Here, 57g of fat accounts for roughly 2,100kJ of the 2,662kJ.

Fat. The NHS treats more than 17.5g of fat per 100g as "high", so any seed butter will sit well above that line. The saturates come to 6g, and the NHS puts its "high" mark for saturates at more than 5g. The NHS explains that saturated fat comes mostly from animal sources, plus a few plant foods such as palm and coconut. The rest of the fat in this butter is the unsaturated kind: 10.8g monounsaturated and 37.5g polyunsaturated. Polyunsaturates make up about two-thirds of the fat. The NHS tells us there are two main types, omega-3 and omega-6, that the body can't make some of them for itself, and that sunflower oil is among the sources of omega-6. Trans fats: 0g.

Carbohydrate and sugar. Just 9.1g of carbohydrate per 100g, and only 1.5g of that is sugar, which the NHS would call "low" (5g or less). Nothing sweet has been added.

Protein. 18g per 100g. Multiply that by 17kJ a gram and protein supplies about 11.5% of the energy. A "source of protein" claim needs at least 12%, so on these figures we don't make one. It's a handy reminder that the claims rules measure protein against all the energy in a food, and in a fat-rich food the fat naturally dilutes the protein's share.

Salt. 0g, because we don't add any. The NHS calls 0.3g or less per 100g "low".

From seed to butter

The sunflower (Helianthus annuus) began life as a North American plant, domesticated some 4,500 to 5,000 years ago, and reached Europe in the early 16th century. Russian and Ukrainian farmers turned it into a proper oil crop in the 1800s, and Europe is where our organic seeds are grown today. The kernels are rich in oil, as that 57g of fat shows, and the Encyclopaedia Britannica notes that sunflower seeds are eaten dried or roasted, or ground into butter.

With the seed as the only ingredient, nothing holds the oil in place, so it may separate in the jar. That's completely normal. Just give it a good stir before you tuck in. Store it cool and dry, and use within 3 months of opening.

Why we keep it raw

Raw simply means the seeds go into the mill without being roasted first. Research on roasting nuts and seeds describes aroma, colour and texture as the things roasting adds, so leaving it out gives a milder, fresher flavour that sits happily in soups, dressings and savoury dishes.

Comparing it with other spreads

UK labels give figures per 100g, and sometimes per portion too. The NHS points out that a manufacturer's portion may not match yours, which is why the per-100g column is the fair way to compare one spread with another. Your own spoonful will be a small fraction of 100g.

In the kitchen

Spread it on toast or swirl it into porridge.
Our top tip: stir a spoonful into veggie soups for extra protein.
Whisk it with lemon and water for a creamy dressing. Add the water a little at a time, whisking as you go, until it loosens to the thickness you like.
Use it in baking and energy balls.

One curiosity if you bake with it: sunflower butter can turn cookies and bars a greenish colour. America's Test Kitchen's science editor traced this to chlorophyll being released when the butter is heated with alkaline baking soda, and found the cookies perfectly safe and no different in taste. The trigger is the alkaline ingredient, not anything wrong with the butter.

Vegan, and free from gluten, dairy and soy.