Fake Butter With Over 95% Non-Dairy Fat Sold in Bulgaria.

In recent weeks, it became clear that cow’s butter was sold on the Bulgarian market that practically contained no dairy fat. In the case, two companies were sanctioned with fines totaling more than 300,000 euros.

Among the ingredients found were palm oil, coconut and palm kernel fats, soybean and sunflower oil, as well as lard. The working hypothesis is that the fraudsters used leftover labels from a previous producer. The Bulgarian Food Safety Agency says there is no evidence of a similar fraud involving other dairy products.

This was explained on NOVA by Dr Kremena Stoeva, director of the Food Control Directorate at the Bulgarian Food Safety Agency. According to her, more than 70 retail outlets were inspected, repeat samples were taken under official control, and the product was stopped from sale, withdrawn from the market and destroyed. She acknowledged that it is currently unknown what quantity of the fake butter had been sold and consumed before the inspections.

I believe we covered a large part of the market, but I cannot say with certainty that we have identified all the places the product reached, Stoeva said. According to Dr Stoeva, there are suspicions that labels left over from a previous producer were used in the case, which may have misled consumers. That is why we handed over all the documentation to the competent investigative authorities, the director said, while stressing that there is no information about who is behind the production of the butter.