A breeding program to improve seed oil quality in safflower was initiated in 1998. Safflower cultivars and breeding lines as well as part of the US safflower germplasm collection were evaluated for their seed oil fatty acid composition, total tocopherol (vitamin E) content, and tocopherol composition. After two selection cycles, lines with high palmitic acid content (10.3% of the total fatty acids), medium stearic acid content (3.9%), high stearic acid content (6.2%), high oleic acid content (>78%), very high oleic acid content (>86%) together with reduced levels of the saturated fatty acids palmitic and stearic acid (<5%), and very high linoleic acid content (>86%) combined with reduced palmitic and stearic acid content (<5.5%) were developed. Furthermore, sources of variation for high total tocopherol content (up to 400 mg kg^-1 seed) and increased gamma-tocopherol content (up to 9.9% of the total tocopherols) were identified and selection for both traits is in progress. The combination of a higher tocopherol content with specific fatty acid and tocopherol profiles will lead to high-quality safflower oils for food and non-food applications.