Chapter 15: Animal, vegetable or microbial fats and oils and their cleavage products; prepared edible fats; animal or vegetable waxes

1. This chapter does not cover:

1. (a) pig fat or poultry fat of heading 0209;

2. (b) cocoa butter, fat and oil (heading 1804);

3. (c) edible preparations containing by weight more than 15 % of the products of heading 0405 (generally, Chapter 21);

4. (d) greaves (heading 2301) or residues of headings 2304 to 2306;

5. (e) fatty acids, prepared waxes, medicaments, paints, varnishes, soap, perfumery, cosmetic or toilet preparations, sulphonated oils or other goods of Section VI; or

6. (f) factice derived from oils (heading 4002).

2. Heading 1509 does not apply to oils obtained from olives by solvent extraction (heading 1510).

3. Heading 1518 does not cover fats or oils or their fractions, merely denatured, which are to be classified in the heading appropriate to the corresponding undenatured fats and oils and their fractions.

4. Soap-stocks, oil foots and dregs, stearin pitch, glycerol pitch and wool grease residues fall in heading 1522.

1. For the purposes of subheading 150930, virgin olive oil has a free acidity expressed as oleic acid not exceeding 2,0 g/ 100 g and can be distinguished from the other virgin olive oil categories according to the characteristics indicated in the Codex Alimentarius Standard 33-1981.

2. For the purposes of subheadings 151411 and 151419, the expression ‘low-erucic-acid rape or colza oil’ means the fixed oil which has an erucic acid content of less than 2 % by weight.

1. For the purposes of subheadings 150710, 150810, 15101000, 151110, 151211, 151221, 151311, 151321, 151411, 151491, 151511, 151521, 15155011, 15155019, 15159021, 15159029, 15159040 to 15159059 and 15180031:

1. (a) fixed vegetable oils, fluid or solid, obtained by pressure, are to be considered as ‘crude’ if they have undergone no other processing than:

   • decantation within the normal time limits,

   • centrifugation or filtration, provided that, in order to separate the oils from their solid constituents, only mechanical force, such as gravity, pressure or centrifugal force, has been employed (excluding any absorption filtering process or any other physical or chemical process);

2. (b) fixed vegetable oils, fluid or solid, obtained by extraction are to continue to be considered as ‘crude’ when they cannot be distinguished, by their colour, odour or taste, nor by recognised special analytical properties, from vegetable oils and fats obtained by pressure;

3. (c) the expression ‘crude oils’ is to be taken to extend to degummed soya-bean oil and to cotton-seed oil from which the gossypol has been removed.

2.

A. Headings 1509 and 1510 cover only oils derived solely from the treatment of olives and having the characteristics, with regard to the content of fatty acids and sterols, which are referred to in Annex I to Commission Delegated Regulation (EU) 2022/2104. Their presence can be determined using methods no. 6 (COI/T.20/Doc. No 33 (Determination of fatty acid methyl esters by gas chromatography)) and no. 8 (COI/T.20/Doc. No 26 (Determination of the composition and content of sterols, triterpenic dialcohols and aliphatic alcohols by capillary gas chromatography)) set out in Annex I to Commission Implementing Regulation (EU) 2022/2105.

Headings 1509 and 1510 do not cover chemically altered olive oil (in particular re-esterified olive oil) and mixtures of olive oil with other oils. The presence of re-esterified olive oil is ascertained using the method no. 3 (COI/T.20/Doc. No 23 (Determination of the percentage of 2-glyceryl monopalmitate)) set out in Annex I to Implementing Regulation (EU) 2022/2105.

B. Subheadings 15092000, 15093000 and 15094000 cover only the olive oils defined in points 1, 2 and 3 below, obtained solely by mechanical or other physical means under conditions which do not lead to the modification of the oil, and which have not undergone any treatment other than washing, decantation, centrifugation or filtration. Olive oils obtained using solvents, chemical or biochemical reagents, or re-esterification processes, as well as any mixtures with oils of other kinds, are excluded from these subheadings.

1. 1. For the purposes of subheading 15092000, ‘extra virgin olive oil’ means olive oil having the characteristics of olive oils of category 1 as set out in Annex I to Delegated Regulation (EU) 2022/2104.

2. 2. Subheading 15093000 covers virgin olive oils which have the characteristics of olive oils of category 2 as set out in Annex I to Delegated Regulation (EU) 2022/2104.

3. 3. For the purposes of subheading 15094000, covers virgin olive oils which have the characteristics of olive oils of category 3 as set out in Annex I to Delegated Regulation (EU) 2022/2104.

C. Subheading 15099000 covers olive oil obtained by the treatment of olive oils of subheadings 15092000, 15093000 and 15094000, whether or not blended with extra virgin olive oil or virgin olive oil, and having the characteristics of olive oils of categories 4 and 5 as set out in Annex I to Delegated Regulation (EU) 2022/2104.

D. For the purposes of subheading 15101000, ‘crude olive pomace oil’ means oils with the characteristics of olive oils of category 6 as set out in Annex I to Delegated Regulation (EU) 2022/2104.

E. Subheading 15109000 covers oils obtained by the treatment of oils of subheading 15101000, whether or not blended with extra virgin olive oil or virgin olive oil, and oils not having the characteristics of the oils referred to in points B, C and D of this additional note.

Oils of this subheading must have the characteristics of the olive oils of categories 7 and 8 as set out in Annex I to Delegated Regulation (EU) 2022/2104.

3. Subheadings 15220031 and 15220039 do not cover:

1. (a) residues resulting from the treatment of fatty substances containing oil having an iodine index, determined in accordance with the ISO 3961 method, lower than 70 or higher than 100;

2. (b) residues resulting from the treatment of fatty substances containing oil having an iodine index higher than 70 or lower than 100, of which the peak area representing the retention volume of apparent betasitosterol, determined in accordance with method no. 8 (COI/T.20/Doc. No 26 (Determination of the composition and content of sterols, triterpenic dialcohols and aliphatic alcohols by capillary gas chromatography)) set out in Annex I to Implementing Regulation (EU) 2022/2105, is less than 93,0 % of the total sterol peak areas.

4. The analytical methods for the determination of the characteristics of the products referred to above are those laid down in the Annexes to Implementing Regulation (EU) 2022/2105.

5. Food preparations made from products of Chapter 15 presented in measured doses, such as capsules, tablets, pastilles and pills, intended for use as food supplements, are excluded from this Chapter. The essential character of a food supplement is not only given by its ingredients, but also by its specific form of presentation revealing its function as a food supplement, since it determines the dosage, the way in which it is absorbed and the place where it is supposed to become active. Such food preparations are to be classified under heading 2106 insofar as they are not specified or included elsewhere.