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The Communique (“Communiqué”) on the Amendment to the Turkish Food Codex Communiqué on Oils Named After Plants (Communiqué No: 2012/29) was published in the Official Gazette dated 29 April 2026 and numbered 33238 and entered into force on the date of its publication.
Through the Communiqué, references to legislation set out in the technical regulations concerning vegetable oils have been updated, revisions have been made to the fatty acid and sterol composition values for certain oils, and the terminology relating to certain quality criteria has been harmonized.
The Ministry of Agriculture and Forestry has issued the following statement regarding the rationale for the amendments to the Communiqué: “It has been determined that, due to changes in the climatic conditions and soil structure of our country, deviations from the values stipulated in the existing legislation have occurred in certain parameters relating to sunflower oil and hazelnut oil. In this context, revisions have been made to the relevant parameters in line with the scientific studies conducted.”
With the Communiqué, the legislative references set out in the legal basis provision and in Articles 3, 6, 8, 9, 10, 11 and 12 of the Turkish Food Codex Communiqué on Oils Named After Plants have been updated. In this context, the reference to the former Turkish Food Codex Regulation has been removed and replaced with a reference to the Turkish Food Codex Regulation published in the Official Gazette dated 19 February 2020 and numbered 31044. In addition, the references to the current versions of the Regulation on Food Additives, the Contaminants Regulation, the Regulation on Maximum Residue Limits of Pesticides, the Microbiological Criteria Regulation, the Regulation on Materials and Articles Intended to Come into Contact with Food, and the Food Labelling and Consumer Information Regulation have been updated.
An amendment has also been made to Article 17 of the Communiqué, which governs the execution thereof, and the phrase “Minister of Food, Agriculture and Livestock” has been replaced with “Minister of Agriculture and Forestry” in line with the current ministerial structure.
With the Communique, amendments have also been made to the table titled “Fatty Acid Composition of Vegetable Oils Determined by Gas-Liquid Chromatography” set out in Annex 1 of the Communique. In this context, the value ranges for palmitoleic acid (C16:1) and stearic acid (C18:0) relating to high oleic sunflower oil have been updated. In Annex 2, a terminological amendment has been made to the table titled “Other Quality Criteria,” and the expression “Peroxide Number” has been replaced with “Peroxide Value.” In Annex 4, in the table titled “Sterol Composition of Vegetable Oils,” the delta-5-avenasterol value range for hazelnut oil has been revised. The aforementioned amendments are summarised in the table below.
| Former | New | |||
| Annex 1 | Sunflower Oil
(high oleic) |
C16:1 | ND–0.1 | ND–0.2 |
| Annex 1 | Sunflower Oil
(high oleic) |
C18:0 | 2.9–6.2 | 1.9–6.2 |
| Annex 2 | Peroxide Number | Peroxide Value | ||
| Annex 4 | Hazelnut oil | delta-5-avenasterol | 1.0–5.1 | 1.0–7.0 |
In addition, the Amending Communiqué shall be executed by the Minister of Agriculture and Forestry.
The full text of the Amending Communiqué is accessible via this link (only available in Turkish).
The content of this article is intended to provide a general guide to the subject matter. Specialist advice should be sought about your specific circumstances.
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