Ministry Renews Production Standards for Meat Products

September 15, 2026 · GZT

The Ministry of Agriculture and Forestry has made fundamental changes to the communiqué on meat products to enhance food safety and prevent consumer deception.

New Communiqué on Meat Products

The Ministry of Agriculture and Forestry has prepared comprehensive changes to the Turkish Food Codex Communiqué on Meat, Prepared Meat Mixtures, and Meat Products to enhance food safety and prevent consumer deception. With the regulation, the production and labeling processes of processed products such as burgers, sucuk, pastirma, kavurma, and döner have been redefined. Within the scope of the communiqué, the addition of foreign protein or nitrogen source ingredients, excluding mandatory technological components, has been prevented, and for the first time, a definition for burgers has been established by linking them to köfte criteria.

Flavoring Ban on Traditional Products

The aim within the framework of the new rules is to preserve the original structure of traditional flavors. The smoking process applied in the production of sucuk, pastirma, and kavurma has been completely banned, ensuring the accustomed taste and aroma structure of the products. At the same time, the use of flavoring agents such as peanuts or cheese in products like sucuk and pastirma has been stopped. This ensures that these products are produced according to traditional standards rather than innovative experiments, and the use of dietary fibers as fillers is restricted.

Transparent Era for Döner Labels

Strict standards have been introduced for döner labels to protect consumers. It has been made mandatory to clearly write the döner names on labels as 'leaf döner', 'leaf-minced döner', or 'minced döner' according to their production content. Existing restrictive provisions have been detailed to prevent the unfair use of starch, soy, and soy derivatives as filling agents to increase product weight. Definitions for döner, coated products, and köfte have also been structured separately for poultry and red meat products.

Fat Limit in Poultry Products

Following controlled trial productions by the Ministry, parameters for poultry meat products have been updated. The upper limit for calcium in heat-treated poultry sucuk not using mechanically separated poultry meat has been increased from 350 mg/kg to 400 mg/kg. Furthermore, the maximum fat content in prepared poultry meat mixtures and poultry döner has been reduced from 20% to 15%, enhancing the nutritional quality of the final product offered to consumers.

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