Companies in the food industry in Germany are currently feeling the effects of the lack of cooking oil. Large corporations such as McDonald’s have therefore already changed their cooking oil mixture for the preparation of French fries.
Other restaurateurs also have to react. And the bottleneck resulting from the Ukraine war is likely to continue. Since Ukraine is the largest supplier, experts do not expect the situation to improve for the time being.
Bottleneck in the gastro for oil and flour
“In any case, we can see that the prices for cooking oils have risen drastically,” says Thomas Geppert, the state manager of the hotel and restaurant association Dehoga in Munich. “It is quite conceivable that one or the other restaurateur will adapt his recipe.”
In a recent survey by the association among its members, 95 percent reported problems with the supply of cooking oil. Flour is also scarcer than usual, with more than half of the participating inns and hoteliers reporting shortages.
Sunflower oil sold out
Sunflower oil has been largely sold out in the supermarkets for weeks. But the shortage has long since affected large companies as well. “We use a vegetable oil mixture to fry our fries – including sunflower and rapeseed oil – with sunflower oil only making up a small part,” says a spokeswoman for McDonald’s Germany in Munich.
“Due to the currently limited availability, we will temporarily further reduce this lower proportion of sunflower oil.” The guests can therefore still get fries “in the usual quality from us”.