Fake butter case exposes gaps in Bulgaria’s food control system
More than six tonnes of counterfeit butter were withdrawn and destroyed in Bulgaria, but authorities cannot determine how much was consumed. The case has raised questions about inspection outcomes, laboratory testing and the traceability of food sold through long supply chains.
Counterfeit product sold across Bulgaria
More than six tonnes of counterfeit butter have been withdrawn from Bulgarian stores and destroyed after laboratory analysis found that a product sold as German cow’s-milk butter contained no cow’s milk. Fakti.bg reports that the product had been distributed nationwide, including through some retail chains, while the amount already consumed remains unknown.
The 250-gram packs were labelled Deutsche Markenbutter, a designation associated with German butter containing 82% milk fat and no vegetable fats. Instead, the product contained palm oil, coconut and palm-kernel fats, soybean oil, sunflower oil and lard. It may also have entered processed foods, including baked goods, through companies that purchased it as an ingredient.
The case was not discovered during routine state inspections. According to Fakti.bg, the importer of the genuine German butter commissioned laboratory testing and notified the Bulgarian Food Safety Agency, or BFSA, and the Commission for Protection of Competition. Two companies were subsequently fined close to €310,000.
Inspection volumes do not show fraud outcomes
In answers supplied to Deutsche Welle, the BFSA reported 1,574 audits of production facilities and warehouses and 122,268 inspections in 2025, excluding daily controls at slaughterhouses. However, the agency said it does not maintain statistics showing how many reports of discrepancies between food labels and actual composition it received over the past four years, how often laboratory samples were taken following those reports or how many cases confirmed fraud.
This leaves regulators able to report inspections, samples and non-compliant results without identifying the number of separate fraud schemes, repeat offenders or sanctions for misleading labels. Several laboratory samples can represent tens of thousands of packages already distributed to consumers, making the distinction important for manufacturers, retailers and ingredient buyers.
Risk-based samples reveal frequent deviations
Under Bulgaria’s national programme for controlling food quality characteristics, 153 of 1,155 samples, about 13%, showed deviations. The highest rate was found among foods with protected names, where 25 of 93 samples, or 27%, failed checks. In one group of dairy-product tests, deviations appeared in 50 of 247 samples, or 20%, while honey recorded 16 non-compliant samples out of 143, or 11%.
Four of only five olive oils tested also failed to meet requirements. These percentages do not represent the share of all food on the Bulgarian market that is defective because inspectors selected samples through risk assessment rather than a representative sampling process. They nevertheless indicate areas where traders and processors face elevated authentication and supplier-verification risks.
Farmers seek shorter supply chains
Simeon Karakolev, chairman of the National Sheep and Goat Breeding Association, told Deutsche Welle that Bulgaria has 30 times fewer farmers participating in associations than the EU average. He argues that cooperatives can combine volumes, processing and sales, improving producer access to consumers and reducing dependence on long chains with high mark-ups.
Karakolev cited a cooperative of more than 400 farmers established by the association. It purchased milk at 20% above the market price and contracted the production of sheep’s cheese, which was sold on foreign markets for less than €6 per kilogram. He said state support, including instruments available through the Bulgarian Development Bank, is necessary to expand short supply chains.
The pressure to cooperate has increased as livestock production has consolidated. The 2020 agricultural census showed that the number of farms keeping livestock and poultry had fallen 74% from 2010, when there were nearly 280,000. Animals are now raised on 71,693 farms, while the average livestock farm has become 3.5 times larger. For food businesses and consumers, the butter case links product authentication with a broader question: whether Bulgaria can combine effective enforcement with supply chains that provide clearer information about origin and composition.
