[en] The effectiveness of mutation breeding depends on the nature of the genetic system in question, on the availability of efficient screening techniques and on an intelligent integration of the novel genetic variation into an appropriate breeding programme. Oil storage in seeds offer an outstanding example of a biosynthetic process, the end products of which are diverse and sufficiently flexible in their genetic control to allow for improvements of product quality such as economically desired. Sophisticated analytical methods have been developed during the recent decades to quantify relevant steps in seedoil storage even in early generations and in large numbers of small samples. Genetic selection for oilseed quality has been of low intensity in nature; but it has also been one-sided only durign the earlier decades of plant breeding because of the predominantly nutritional consumption of vegetable oils. Today an expanding array of new breeding goals for oleochemical and technical uses is developing. In addition, biotechnical innovations offer promising support to mutation breeding for the domestication or even construction of virtually new oilseed crops for application in both food and non-food uses. The purpose of this paper is to exemplify recent advances and to outline future prospects of mutation breeding for the improvement of oilseed quality. (author). 136 refs, 8 figs, 12 tabs