Athens, May 9 - Greek food inspectors this week ordered the recall or seizure of over 2,000 metric tons of imported Ukrainian sunflower oil found to be tainted with mineral oil.
The alert follows similar mobilisation in France, Spain and Italy in late April over around 40,000 tons of oil suspected to have been deliberately contaminated.
The Hellenic Food Authority, or EFET, Thursday said that 1,182 tons imported through Switzerland were recalled as contaminated and another 835 tons in questionable condition were confiscated.
A further 935 tons are in the process of recall, it said.
The mineral oil has low level toxicity, EFET said.
Greece's two main packed oil retailers, Elais and Minerva, announced product recalls from supermarkets.
EFET and the Greek state secretariat on consumer issues did not immediately return calls for a comment.
In total, about 40,000 tons of Ukrainian sunflower oil were "deliberately contaminated", a European Commission expert said last month.
"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.
France last month said it pulled 2,600 tons of oil from its market while Spain's food safety agency said 3,500 tons were withdrawn from outlets.
A commission spokesman said "tracing is going on" and underlined that the level of contamination was not "sufficient to cause acute health problems".
In 1981, rapeseed oil adulterated with aniline, a coal tar extract, sold in Spain was blamed for the deaths of hundreds of people.