Draft law No. 5148: why palm oil is not banned and what is required of manufacturers of sweets, baby food and dairy products

IA “FACT” already reported, which President Volodymyr Zelenskyi approved in November draft law No. 5148, designed to raise food quality standards. In the info field, this law will appear as such, which allegedly prohibits the use of palm oil in sweets, baby food and dairy products. However, this is only half the case: there is no direct ban on palm oil in the document. So, what exactly are the restrictions introduced, and what consequences can manufacturers expect?

Why is palm oil so popular?

Why is there such a hype surrounding palm oil? The popularity of the product as such is justified. It is a vegetable fat from the fruit of the oil palm. The oil is valued in the food industry because it is stable, multifunctional and often used without additional processing. The ingredient’s popularity in the food industry is due to the fact that palm oil is a very productive culture. You can get much more oil from one hectare than from other oil crops – the same sunflower or rapeseed.

Secondly, depending on the processing, palm oil can be both liquid and solid: this makes it suitable for various products – from cookies to margarine. In the liquid part, more than half are saturated fatty acids, a slightly smaller share is monounsaturated, and the rest are polyunsaturated. It is important that there are no harmful trans fats in olein.

Thirdly, it is resistant to oxidation, which extends the shelf life of products. Further, this miracle ingredient does not change the taste, smell or color of products, which makes it indispensable for use in many recipes. Finally, the high smoke point makes it ideal for frying and cooking at high temperatures.

The product is made “harmful” by hydrogenation – a process during which liquid fats are converted into solid ones by adding hydrogen. This is done, for example, with sunflower or soybean oil to get fat with the right texture for baking or creams. It is this process that can create trans fats, which are harmful to health. They accumulate in the body, disrupt metabolism and can cause problems with blood vessels. Because of this, many countries limit the use of trans fats in products.

How the legitimacy of palm oil was discussed in the domestic political community

Attempts to limit or ban palm oil in Ukraine have been going on for 11 years with the light hand of the author of the bill – Viktor Baloga. However, the document was sent for editing, after which the idea disappeared from the agenda for several years. Later, the topic was brought up to date by the odious Oleg Lyashko, who actively advocated for the support of Ukrainian dairy producers and stated that palm oil harms both the industry and the health of the nation. His draft law reached only the first reading in the Verkhovna Rada.

The discussion was revived in 2021 in draft law No. 5148. The authors reiterated the health risks they believe palm oil poses, especially in baby products. But in September, when the draft law passed the first reading, it became known that it is not aimed at banning oil itself, but at hydrogenated vegetable oils, to which it may belong. This is important because hydrogenated oils are a processed product with different properties than regular palm oil.

Trans fats are monster molecules

Information spread in the media that the use of palm oil was allegedly banned in Ukraine. However, if we turn to the text of the law, it is clear that hydrogenated fats, from which trans fats are formed, fall under the restrictions.

According to an authoritative study, trans fatty acids –  “a type of fatty acid that either occurs naturally or can be industrially produced in commercial quantities through a process known as hydrogenation. Hydrogenation involves the treatment of fats and oils with gaseous hydrogen in the presence of a catalyst, which leads to the selective addition of hydrogen to carbon-carbon double bonds.”

In the food industry trans fatty acids appear as a result of partial hydrogenation of vegetable oils. In this process, naturally occurring cis-unsaturated double bonds are actively converted to trans-unsaturated ones. Thanks to this, trans fats give products the necessary physical and chemical properties that are so valued by manufacturers. However, consumption of partially hydrogenated oils is correlated with an increased risk of cardiovascular disease, infertility, endometriosis, gallstone disease, diabetes, Alzheimer’s disease, and certain types of cancer.

It is worth noting that palm oil is widely used in the food industry without the need for hydrogenation, during which part of the cis-double bonds is transformed into the trans-configuration and becomes harmful to health. This means that palm oil as such is devoid of trans-unsaturated fatty acid isomers. Moreover, studies have shown that when palm oil is consumed as part of a low-fat diet, it supports optimal levels of cholesterol and lipoproteins in the blood.

What exactly is argued in draft law No. 5148

According to the new law, in food products, the specific gravity of the seditious component should not exceed 2 grams of trans fatty acids for every 100 grams of total fat. The recipe of traditional “milk” should not contain vegetable fats and oils, as well as proteins and fats of non-dairy origin. In addition, the use of preservatives or stabilizers is prohibited.

In turn, the use of hydrogenated oil components, solid fractions of palm oil and other similar components is prohibited in the production of products for children. The presence of refined vegetable oils in the product formulation must be clearly indicated on the label. In the case of using hydrogenated fats or oils, this should also be indicated.

Ukraine is powerful the manufacturer rapeseed, sunflower and soybean oils, and hydrogenation technology is widely used in the world to change the consistency of the oil, first of all, to thicken it. However, more and more companies are switching to alternative methods – partial hydrogenation and transesterification, which allows obtaining fats with the desired composition.

When in 2021 the European Union limited the content of trans fats of industrial origin (up to 2%), Ukrainian confectionery companies also began to implement similar standards, adapting their production processes to them. In particular, the largest palm oil processors in Ukraine – “Delta Wilmar Ukraine”, “Schedro” and “Kapro Oil” – are implementing modern technologies.

Such changes strengthened the competitiveness of Ukrainian manufacturers in the West. In addition, such a strategy fits into the global mainstream of healthy eating. Companies began inventing alternatives, switching to more natural fats and oils. Thus, in the production of gingerbread, dried fruit and straws, margarine was replaced by deodorized sunflower oil. Margarine with a lower glycidol content is now used for bakery products.

Trans fats are often used to make products cheaper. Yes, milk fat costs about UAH 300 per kilogram, while trans fats are half as much. Thanks to this difference, manufacturers can get an additional margin by offering cheaper confectionery products. But consumers should remember that the low price of such products often indicates the use of lower quality ingredients.

In milk-containing products – sour cream, butter, cheese or ice cream – usually not palm oil itself, but its oleic fraction is used.  Currently, half of domestically produced ice cream contains substitutes for milk fat. However, in low-fat products – milk, kefir, ryazhanka or yogurt – palm oil or its derivatives are not used. Fortunately, adding substitutes in these product categories does not benefit processors financially.

It is worth noting that the majority of Ukrainian dairy farmers almost do not use vegetable fat substitutes in their products intended for domestic consumption. The main use of such ingredients is for export products. The reason is simple – high competition in these markets forces to reduce the price of products, and this is possible thanks to the use of surrogate ingredients of milk fats.

A similar approach is practiced by European manufacturers, who use vegetable fats to reduce the price of products exported to countries with low purchasing power.

Regarding product labeling, most manufacturers already followed the rules and clearly indicated the composition of their products even before the adoption of the new law. However, a fifth of the market remains in the shadows, where labeling requirements are often ignored.

Tetyana Viktorova