Ministry of Agriculture Announces New Food Adulteration List
· GZT
The Ministry of Agriculture and Forestry has released its updated list of products containing adulterants or imitations that pose a risk to health, as part of its ongoing food safety inspections.
The Ministry of Agriculture and Forestry has updated its lists of 'Foods That Endanger Health' and 'Imitated or Adulterated Foods' as a result of its ongoing inspections to ensure food safety. Comprehensive checks conducted across Turkey revealed non-compliant ingredients in numerous products offered for sale in various provinces. The list, announced to the public with the aim of protecting consumer health, details non-conformities in many staple food items, from meat to dairy, and from olive oil to honey.
The most notable non-conformities in the inspection results were observed particularly in processed meat products and sucuk (Turkish sausage). In Bursa, offal (tongue) was detected in heat-treated beef sucuk, while poultry meat and head meat were found in another beef sucuk from the same province. A business in Konya had poultry and head meat in its beef sucuk, and mechanically separated poultry meat was identified in chicken sucuk from Kütahya. Additionally, poultry meat, head meat, and gizzards were found in raw Adana kebab filling sold in Kayseri.
The Ministry's updated list also extensively covers fraud in dairy products and other foods. Vegetable oil and melting salts were used in fresh kashar cheese sold in Aydın, while starch was detected in yogurt from a business in Kilis. The report shared by officials indicated significant adulteration in products such as pide and lahmacun fillings, beef stir-fry, köfte (meatballs), butter, buffalo yogurt, olive oil, and honey.