Why the olive is returning to its whole form
From 2027, olive extract and olive leaf extract will no longer be authorized as feed additives in the EU, for any animal species, under Commission Implementing Regulation (EU) 2025/2575. If your formulations rely on them, the clock is already ticking. The good news? The olive itself isn’t going anywhere. Here’s what’s changing, when, and how to stay a step ahead.
Key takeaways
- Under Regulation (EU) 2025/2575, olive extract and olive leaf extract will no longer be authorized as EU feed additives, for any animal species.
- This is not a safety verdict: the dossiers needed for re-evaluation were simply not submitted.
- Phase-out dates: 8 January 2027 (additives), 8 April 2027 (premixtures) and 8 January 2028 (compound feed and feed materials).
The olive is not leaving animal nutrition. It is returning to its whole form: physically processed whole-olive products, such as olive pulp, may qualify as feed materials instead.
Why olive extracts are being withdrawn as EU feed additives
On 18 December 2025, the European Commission adopted Regulation (EU) 2025/2575, withdrawing a list of feed additives from the EU market [1]. On that list: olive extract and olive leaf extract from Olea europaea L., filed under botanically defined flavoring and appetizing substances and withdrawn for all animal species.
Before anyone reaches for the panic button, let’s be precise about what this is. It is an administrative outcome, not a safety verdict. The applications required to re-evaluate these extracts were not submitted, so their authorization lapses. Nothing in the regulation says olive-derived products are unsafe. What it does mean is that once the transition periods end, these extracts can no longer be marketed or used under their former additive authorization [1].
If olive extract has been a reliable part of your formulations for years, this may feel like an unwelcome surprise. Think of it less as a dead end and more as a detour, with clear signposts. Here they are.
The transition, step by step: when do olive extracts have to be removed from feed?
The regulation gives the market three checkpoints [1]:
- 8 January 2027: existing stocks of the additives may no longer be placed on the market or used.
- 8 April 2027: premixtures produced with them may no longer be placed on the market or used.
- 8 January 2028: compound feed and feed materials produced with them, or with those premixtures, may no longer be placed on the market or used.
The first checkpoint is less than three months away. Our advice: review affected formulations now, while there is still room to test, adjust and source alternatives, rather than in the first week of January.
EU rules for botanical feed additives are changing
Olive is in good company. This withdrawal is part of a much larger review of the EU flavoring register. The re-evaluation program originally covered more than 800 feed flavoring additives, and the FEFANA Feed Flavoring Authorization Consortium submitted 58 dossiers covering 858 substances [6]. Where no dossier was maintained, the entry is being phased out: the Annex of Regulation 2025/2575 alone lists around 50 flavoring entries, including olive [1].
And the botanicals that do make it through? Their authorizations are getting more detailed. Instead of one broad “all species” approval, recent regulations can set separate maximum levels per species and category, detailed compositional specifications, compulsory analytical methods, rules on premixtures and drinking water, user-protection measures and conditions for combining with other additives. Two recent examples show how this plays out on the formulation desk:
- Basil tincture (Regulation (EU) 2026/1786) is authorized as a sensory additive, with species-specific maximum levels ranging from 65 mg/kg of complete feed for chickens for fattening to 500 mg/kg for ornamental fish, and several other limits in between. Manage a broad portfolio, and every formula and label has to be checked against the right species limit. And because basil tincture contains methyleugenol and estragole, it can only be used with other additives if the levels of these substances in the feed stay below the applicable limits [2].
- Rosemary extract (Regulation (EU) 2024/1068) is authorized as a technological antioxidant for cats and dogs, with maximum carnosic acid levels of 5 and 34 mg/kg of complete feed respectively. When several ingredients bring carnosic acid into the formula, their combined contribution must stay under the species limit [3]. In practice, that means tracking every contributor, notably rosemary (Rosmarinus officinalis), sage (Salvia officinalis) and other Salvia species that may contain the compound.
Each new limit is one more sum to run across the complete formulation, and one more to repeat for every species and market you supply. No wonder we are seeing growing interest, particularly in France, in plant powders and well-characterized raw materials standardized in naturally occurring compounds.
Feed material or feed additive?
So where does a plant ingredient sit? The European Commission’s Recommendation 2011/25/EU offers a useful rule of thumb [4]. Whole plants, plant parts and products of limited physical processing, such as crushing, grinding or drying, generally point toward feed-material status. Specifically extracted, purified or standardized preparations intended mainly to perform an additive function lean toward the feed-additive framework. Each product is still assessed case by case: manufacturing process, composition, degree of purification, intended function and use all count.
One clarification worth making: feed-material status does not mean fewer rules, just different ones. Feed materials do not need an individual EU authorization or periodic renewal, but they must still meet requirements for safety, traceability, labeling, botanical purity, composition and control of undesirable substances. A product may also only carry a description from the EU Catalogue of Feed Materials if it meets that entry’s requirements [5].
The whole olive, still within reach
Here is the reassuring part. The olive is not leaving animal nutrition; it is taking a different route. Physically processed whole-olive products may qualify as feed materials rather than feed additives.
That is exactly how Novinox Nat Olea is made. It is a standardized olive pulp from olive-oil production, obtained through physical processing only: mechanical separation, drying and milling. No solvent extraction, no isolation of individual compounds. It therefore follows the feed-material route, not the additive route.
What you keep is the olive totum, the full natural matrix of the fruit: more than 40 naturally occurring bioactives from Greek Koroneiki olives, including phenolics such as hydroxytyrosol and tyrosol and triterpenes such as maslinic acid and squalene. And because guesswork has no place in a formulation, it comes with:
- Standardized composition, with specifications for naturally occurring phenolic and triterpenic markers
- A controlled, traceable supply chain, from Greek groves to finished material
- Scientific characterization by Innovad’s team, so you know what goes into every batch
- Demonstrated effects in feed preservation, documented in a dedicated proof dossier. For example, in a pilot extrusion trial at the Danish Technological Institute, run under deliberately tough conditions, 500 ppm of Novinox Nat Olea in the dry mix of an aquafeed protected astaxanthin through extrusion as effectively as the same dose of a 30% tocopherol product and a mostly synthetic industrial antioxidant program.
If your formulations currently rely on olive extract, now is a good moment to explore the alternatives. Want to see the numbers first? Our feed preservation dossier is available on request. Discover how Novinox Nat Olea could fit your formulations.
Listen and talk to us
In our latest episode of “Beyond the Feed”, we unpack what the withdrawal means in practice and why the market is moving toward standardized plant raw materials. Listen to the episode on Spotify or on Youtube.
“This isn’t a safety decision, and the olive isn’t leaving animal nutrition. What changes is the route: from extracts to the whole, physically processed olive.”
Clémence Messant, Product Development Manager, Innovad Group
FAQ: Q&A with our expert Clémence Messant
Clémence Messant, Product Development Manager at Innovad Group
Is olive extract banned in animal feed in the EU?
Not banned on safety grounds, but its authorization is being withdrawn. Under Commission Implementing Regulation (EU) 2025/2575, olive extract and olive leaf extract are being removed from the EU register of feed additives for all animal species. Once the transition periods end, they can no longer be marketed or used as feed additives.
Is olive extract unsafe for animals?
No. The withdrawal is not a conclusion that olive-derived products are unsafe. It happens because the applications needed for their re-evaluation were not submitted or were later withdrawn.
Can existing stocks of olive extract still be used?
Yes, but the clock is running. Existing stocks of the additives can be placed on the market and used until 8 January 2027. Premixtures made with them can be used until 8 April 2027. Compound feed and feed materials made with them, or with those premixtures, can be used until 8 January 2028.
Can olive pulp be used as a feed material?
Whole-olive products obtained through physical processing only, such as mechanical separation, drying and milling, may qualify as feed materials rather than feed additives. Novinox Nat Olea is produced this way, without solvent extraction or isolation of individual compounds. Feed materials don’t need an individual EU authorization, but they must still meet EU requirements for safety, traceability, labeling and composition.
Which other flavoring additives are affected by Regulation 2025/2575?
The Annex of Regulation (EU) 2025/2575 lists around 50 botanically defined flavoring entries being withdrawn, including olive extract and olive leaf extract. These are entries for which no dossier was maintained during the EU re-evaluation of feed flavorings.
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Sources
- Commission Implementing Regulation (EU) 2025/2575 of 18 December 2025 withdrawing from the market certain feed additives, OJ L, 19.12.2025. http://data.europa.eu/eli/reg_impl/2025/2575/oj
- Commission Implementing Regulation (EU) 2026/1786 (basil tincture from Ocimum basilicum L.). https://eur-lex.europa.eu/legal-content/EN/TXT/HTML/?uri=OJ:L_202601786
- Commission Implementing Regulation (EU) 2024/1068 (rosemary extract for cats and dogs). https://eur-lex.europa.eu/legal-content/EN/TXT/HTML/?uri=OJ:L_202401068
- Commission Recommendation 2011/25/EU of 14 January 2011 establishing guidelines for the distinction between feed materials, feed additives, biocidal products and veterinary medicinal products. https://eur-lex.europa.eu/eli/reco/2011/25/oj
- Commission Regulation (EU) No 68/2013 on the Catalogue of feed materials. https://eur-lex.europa.eu/eli/reg/2013/68/oj
- Food & Agribusiness World, "Group back re-authorisation of feed flavouring additives". https://www.foodagribusiness.world/feed/group-back-re-e2-80-90authorisation-of-feed-flavouring-additives