The Sustainable and Renewable Energy Program and the Office of Sustainability partnered to locally produce organic sunflower oil for food and fuel, allowing the University of Wisconsin-Platteville to further explore new, innovative products and environmental changes.

Although this project began with the notion of producing biodiesel, it is now focusing on using sunflower oil for food.

The comparison to other oils gives UW-Platteville Sunflower Oil a competitive advantage when looking at specific benefits.

“Sunflower oil has all the benefits of olive oil, but it is good for the environment and local economy,” UW-Platteville Sustainability Coordinator Amy Seeboth said.

“Anything you can do with olive oil, you can do with sunflower oil,” senior business administration major Kassi Nadig said. “However, sunflower oil has a higher smoke point, which means you can cook it at a higher temperature on the stove. It also has healthier fats than olive oil.”

The process of producing the oil occurs throughout various stages.

First, the sunflower seeds are grown and harvested locally, and once the seeds are clean, they are then dried.

Using the commercial kitchen in Glenview Commons, the seeds are then pressed, which heats up the seeds, removes the shell and presses out any oil.

The seeds are 30 percent oil, and the remaining 70 percent pulp is used as high-protein cattle feed.

The final step before bottling is filtering the oil to satisfaction.

One element of the promotion of UW-Platteville Sunflower Oil is the modern label on the bottles.

Out of eight design options from an open competition, a committee chose senior media studies major Andrew Burchardt’s original label for the bottles.

“It was a great opportunity to design something for a really great project. I’m glad to be helping out with it,” Burchardt said.

Roughly 2,300 bottles were packaged for the 2013-14 year with the new label.

Along with using the oil throughout multiple dining services, it is also sold at Driftless Market on Main Street in Platteville, the Markee Pioneer Student Center on certain dates and through student organizations.

Each 8.5 ounce bottle costs $10.

“The money is currently going to pay off the expenses from the program in hopes to break- even soon and provide a profit to continue doing the project next year,” Seeboth said.

In hopes of turning this project into a student-run business, the Office of Sustainability is initially reaching out to student organizations to use the sunflower oil for fundraising purposes.

Four organizations have already become involved, profiting $2 for every bottle sold.

In addition, they will receive a $25 bonus for every 50 bottles they are able to sell.

The Sustainable and Renewable Energy Program and the Office of Sustainability are very optimistic about what the future holds.

“Because Wisconsin is great for growing grains, we believe local, organically grown sunflower seed oil is the next big thing,” Seeboth said.

In the MPSC, the next time they will be selling the sunflower seed oil is March 13 from 8:00 to 10:45 a.m.

If an individual or organization is interested in UW-Platteville Sunflower Oil, contact Amy Seeboth at [email protected].

The Facebook page “UW-Platteville Sunflowers” contains more information about the product and other important details.