The Turkish Food Codex Communiqué on Butter and Clarified Butter Has Been Published

The Turkish Food Codex Communiqué on Butter and Clarified Butter (‘Communiqué’) entered into force after being published in the Official Gazette dated 4 April 2025 and numbered 32860.

The purpose of Communiqué is to determine the product characteristics required for the hygienic and technically appropriate production, preservation, packaging, storage, transportation and marketing of butter and clarified butter.

The Turkish Food Codex Communiqué on Butter and Clarified Butter (‘Communiqué’) entered into force after being published in the Official Gazette dated 4 April 2025 and numbered 32860.

The products within the scope of the Communiqué should comply with the relevant legislation and have the following characteristics:

• They should have a unique taste, odour, appearance and structure.
• They should react negatively to peroxidase test.
• A maximum of 2% salt by weight can be used in butter.
• Starter cultures may be used in order to provide typical taste and aroma due to technology in production.
• Butter without added salt should contain at least 82% milk fat, at most 2% skimmed milk dry matter and at most 16% water by weight.
• Butter with added salt and/or flavouring should contain at least 80% milk fat, at most 2% skimmed milk dry matter and at most 16% water by weight.
• Flavoured butter shall not contain any flavouring which may cause imitation and adulteration.
• Flavourings shall not be used in clarified butter and butter without flavouring.

Regarding the labelling of products, the following provisions have been introduced in addition to the provisions in the Turkish Food Codex Regulation on Food Labelling and Informing Consumers:

• The name of the food must also appear in the main field of vision on the label of the products.
• For butter without added salt, it should be clearly indicated on the label. The salt content of butter to which salt has been added should be stated in the ingredients section of the label.
• In flavoured butter, the flavouring substance used and its amount shoul be included in the basic field of vision together with the food name.
• If milk or cream from a single animal species is used, the name of the animal species shoul be stated on the label.
• If milk or cream from different animal species are mixed, the name of the species from which the milk is obtained should be stated on the label. However, images of species such as cow, sheep, goat and buffalo should not be included on the labels of these products.
• In the labelling, advertising, promotion and presentation of the products, misleading expressions and visuals that will create the perception of the products in this Communiqué should not be used.

Those who violate the Communiqué will be subject to administrative sanctions in accordance with the relevant articles of the Veterinary Services, Plant Health, Food and Feed Law No. 5996.

Food operators operating before the publication date of the Communiqué have been given until 1 September 2025 to comply with the provisions of the Communiqué.

You can access the full text of the Communiqué from this link.