The Food and Veterinary Agency (FVA) announced on Friday evening that it had decided to remove 12 Vita Dairy products from the market. According to the agency, tests detected the presence of palm oil, powdered milk and/or starch that had not been declared.

The FVA’s decision was made public several hours after the Ministry of Industry, Entrepreneurship, Trade and Innovation (MINTI) announced the recall of several dairy products from other companies, without including Vita in that announcement. Meanwhile, Vita Dairy published results that it said showed its milk did not contain palm oil.

In a statement sent at 20:00, MINTI said the inspection of products from the company “Abrazen-Vita” had not yet been completed. The statement was published just over two hours before the FVA’s separate announcement.

The FVA said the main problems had been identified in products declared as milk.

“Four samples from four products sold, presented and declared as milk were found to be non-compliant: two contained palm oil and two contained powdered milk, neither of which had been declared to consumers. These products came from the same facility and an operation approved for milk production and processing,” the FVA announced.

During the inspection, the agency, which operates under the Ministry of Agriculture, also identified 26 products containing plant-based ingredients that were produced “outside the scope of the operator’s approval.” Their production has therefore been halted until the relevant approval is obtained from the FVA.

The measures imposed include the recall of 12 non-compliant products from the market, enhanced monitoring and continuous retesting of the milk production line. The production of 26 products outside the scope of approval, misleading product presentation and the issuance of veterinary certificates have also been prohibited until the non-compliance issues are resolved.

Meanwhile, MINTI announced that it had ordered nine companies to suspend the processing and packaging of products containing fat of plant origin and to recall them from the market.

Before the decision to remove the products, Vita Dairy had published FVA results on social media, which the company interpreted as confirmation that its products did not contain palm oil.

MINTI’s inspections of the dairy sector began on August 6. The ministry had warned of penalties and product recalls in cases where labels contained inaccurate claims or failed to disclose the use of powdered milk, palm oil or other ingredients.

The inspections were launched after the FVA published test results on August 4 showing that around 20 percent of the dairy product samples analyzed in Kosovo did not match the ingredients declared on their labels.

Most of these discrepancies involved the detection of palm oil that had not been declared on product labels.

The FVA’s results followed a general inspection that lasted around three months.

The issue of dairy product safety became more contentious in early July. On July 2, FVA inspectors examined Vita’s factory in Istog and collected samples of long-life milk, powdered milk and palm oil for laboratory testing.

While awaiting the final results, the company temporarily suspended operations. The decision sparked a clash between company executives and acting Agriculture Minister Armend Muja.

Company executives described the inspection as selective and accused the government of treating them “as if they were criminals.”

The list of results published by the FVA during its August 4 press conference also included several samples from Abrazen, the parent company of Vita Dairy. The list stated that palm oil had been detected in a sample declared as “milk,” but had not been listed on the label.

Following the publication of these findings, Vita denied that its milk contained palm oil.

Current legislation in Kosovo does not set a specific limit on the amount of palm oil that may be used in food and dairy products.

Under a European Union regulation, dairy products are products derived from milk whose production does not involve the addition of any substance intended to replace milk constituents.

Likewise, the terms “cheese,” “yogurt” and “butter” are reserved exclusively for products made from milk. These terms may not be used for products in which plant-based fats have been added to replace animal fats from milk. / RFE

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