Turkish pistachios are sought out for a reason. The kernels and paste from the south-east of the country have a flavour and a green colour that buyers in confectionery, ice cream and bakery specify deliberately, because other origins do not deliver the same profile. Since February 2026 they also arrive at the EU border under a 50% check rate — and a buyer who wants the product has to want it with that constraint attached.
What the check rate is
Commission Implementing Regulation (EU) 2026/194, applying from 18 February 2026, raised the frequency of identity and physical checks on pistachios, mixtures and products produced from pistachios originating in Türkiye to 50%. The regulation cites a high rate of non-compliance for aflatoxin contamination found during official controls.
Fifty per cent is a sampling rate. Half of consignments are selected for sampling and laboratory analysis at the border control post; the other half proceed on documents. It says nothing about any individual lot. What it does say is that the fast-clearance case and the slow-clearance case are now equally likely, and a supply plan has to be built on that.
Planning for the slower case
The common failure is to treat a border hold as an exception. At a 50% rate it is not an exception; it is half of all deliveries. A schedule that assumes documentary clearance will be wrong on every other consignment, and the occasions when it is wrong will be the ones that land on a production run or a launch date.
The workable approach is to build the laboratory wait into every delivery as standard, and to treat a fast clearance as a bonus rather than the plan. That costs nothing but honesty at the scheduling stage, and it removes the category's most common source of friction between supplier and buyer.
Kernels: calibre, whole or split, colour
For kernels, the brief carries calibre as a size band, whether whole kernels or split are acceptable, and the colour expectation. Green colour is what the origin is bought for, and it varies with variety, harvest timing and handling. A buyer who wants deep green should say so and should expect it to carry a premium; a buyer whose application does not show the kernel should not pay for it.
The aflatoxin position for kernels follows the two-tier structure in Regulation (EU) 2023/915: 8 µg/kg B1 and 10 µg/kg total for direct consumption or ingredient use, 12 µg/kg B1 and 15 µg/kg total for lots that will be sorted first. The declared use has to match what the buyer will actually do.
Paste: no sorting after the mill
Paste is milled from kernels, usually roasted, to a smooth consistency. Two things follow from that.
Milling homogenises. Whatever aflatoxin was present in the kernels is now evenly distributed through the paste, and sorting is no longer possible. Paste therefore has to be made from a lot that already meets the direct-consumption limits — there is no higher tier to fall back on after the mill. A supplier who mills first and tests afterwards has removed their own safety margin.
Paste also oxidises faster than whole kernels, because milling exposes the oil, and it needs barrier packaging with a realistic view of stock turn. Colour retention in paste depends on kernel selection and on process control during roasting and milling; a dull paste from green kernels is a process failure, not a raw-material one.
Where we sit
TeraVella works in nuts as a sourcing partner — we do not claim to own an orchard, a cracking plant or a roasting line. We verify a producer against your brief, fix form, calibre or fineness, roast level, colour expectation and packaging in writing, plan representative sampling and analysis before shipment against the limits for your intended use, and manage documented delivery with the border check rate built into the schedule rather than discovered at the port. We hold ISO 9001, ISO 22000 and ISO 27001 and make no organic or other certification claim. Volumes and prices are confirmed at quotation.
