Spain bans production of olive-sunflower fat blend

The olive and sunflower 'fat preparation' Spain won't let produce

What hides behind the label "cooking fat preparation"? It contains neither extra virgin olive oil nor pure sunflower oil: it is a blend of the two, which cannot be produced in Spain—industrial regulations have banned it since the 1980s—but can legally be made in other EU countries, including Portugal, and then exported to Spanish supermarkets. The paradox closes in the same aisle: some shoppers bought loose sunflower oil for €1.55.

What's inside a "cooking fat preparation"

The technical name is intimidating by design: multi-grade frying fat preparation. Behind it lies a recipe industry has known for decades: a base of refined, tasteless, and decolorized oil, with a minimal portion of extra virgin that serves almost only to add tonalidad, and sunflower oil to lower the final price per liter. Some recall that refined oil is usually sold as "mild" or "intense" and that, strictly speaking, it is a mixture of fatty acids rather than olive juice.

The sector admits the combination is not new: some remember it appearing in news reports as early as 2015, and discussion about its market presence has resurfaced each time olive oil prices stepped up. What changes now is the packaging: the blend is presented as a fat preparation, a designation that does not detail the proportion of each oil. The comparison with the post-war era appears naturally: chocolate substitutes, coffee substitutes, carob bread. This is the contemporary chapter of that series, only now it comes with nutritional analysis and a barcode.

Is olive oil mixed with sunflower legal in Spain?

Producing it here, no. Importing it, yes. The mixture has been prohibited for industrial use in Spain since the 1980s, but the free movement of goods within the European Union allows a product legally manufactured in Portugal to end up on a Spanish supermarket shelf without anyone breaking any rules. In 2023, general press headlines stated it was an "illegal in Spain" blend already being sold in supermarkets.

There is irony in this. At home, anyone can mix oils in the pan and no one will knock on the door. What is prohibited is industrial processing based on that mixture. Therefore, the boundary is not in the product: it is in who packages it and where.

Prices don't match: cheap sunflower, sky-high olive oil

While sunflower oil was found at €1.55, olive oil was priced higher than in other European markets. The recurring complaint is that a product coming from Spanish olive groves sells for more here than in Germany, and that the differential has become structural. Some describe it as a "two-estimulante ilegal euro" applied to the shopping basket: you pay three times what costs one unit in other countries.

With this landscape, the fat preparation is not an eccentricity, it is a market response. When extra virgin oil becomes expensive, the industry brings out a package promising frying without mortgaging your salary. Pomace oil fulfilled that role when sunflower oil was scarce. And the parallel with pandemic toilet paper has already appeared: some joke about entering with several carts to empty the shelves and resell later what costs one thing today for quite another. The joke accurately measures the mood.

The ghost of the 1981 rapeseed oil scandal

No conversation about strange mixes escapes the rapeseed oil syndrome. Here it reappears with two layers. The first is antiestéticar: seeing a label that doesn't say "olive oil" and thinking about what peine. The second is reinterpretation: some argue, without evidentiary support, that the problem in 1981 wasn't the rapeseed itself but the organophosphates accompanying it, and that the oil acted as a scapegoat. It should be treated as what it is, an unverified hypothesis.

Added to this are the fine print details on additives. E319 (tert-butylhydroquinone) and E900 (dimethylsiloxane) are cited as threats to the immune system based on claims not accompanied by studies. In Spain, they are not considered dangerous at authorized doses. Writing them here does not turn suspicion into data.

How to really fry: churro shops, smoke point, and lard

Professional experience contradicts much of the folklore. In traditional churro shops, no mixes are used: either regular sunflower or high-oleic, and the temperature is controlled by heat and quantity poured into the pot. Correct frying absorbs the minimum—some absorption always occurs—doesn't stain the paper towel, and comes out crispy outside without overcooking.

Technical consensus is narrow: if the oil smokes and darkens until turning brown, it has become poison and no filtering saves it. Reusing it until exhaustion is the worst habit in domestic cooking. Facing the war of labels, the oldest solution remains valid: pork lard, which withstands high temperatures and doesn't need rare names.

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Sunflower at €1.55 and the fat preparation, who knows how much. If someone finds the logic, please advise. Meanwhile, the shelves will continue filling with names that sound like chemistry labs and the basket, with nostalgia for the slaughterhouse tradition.