The story
What goes in and what does not
The method has not changed since 2012. Only the number.
Where those four words come from
İçindekiler: Un, Yağ, Tuz ve Sevgi
This is the only ingredient declaration on Ensar's current site. For Böreklik Yufka and Dürüm Lavaş there is nothing at all.
Three of the four words are ingredients: un, yağ and tuz. The fourth, sevgi, is not. What legally belongs in the ingredients field, namely the type of oil, the order by weight and the percentages, still has to be supplied by Ensar. Until then that field stays empty in the specification sheet.
One thing stands out: water is not named, oil is. Traditional yufka is flour, water and salt. We take over what is there and add nothing.
Three against fourteen
The difference is not in what is missing, but in what has not been added.
3
At Ensar
Un, yağ, tuz. No further names appear on their page.
14
On the supermarket chiller shelf
A widely sold tortilla lists fourteen names, among them palm fat, glycerol and two preservatives.
What those fourteen say
- wheat flour 63%
- water
- rapeseed oil
- humectant (glycerol)
- palm fat
- sugar
- raising agent E450i
- raising agent E500ii
- acid E296
- emulsifier E471
- stabiliser E412
- stabiliser E466
- preservative E202
- preservative E282
The fourteen names are taken word for word from the ingredient list the manufacturer of that product publishes itself; the source is in the build report. Ensar decides whether this comparison goes on the site. Comparative advertising is allowed, but only as long as the claim stays verifiable.
What is not said here: that yufka without egg or milk would be unique. Traditional yufka always is. That is the norm in this category, and therefore not a distinction.
Production
From one sac to a hundred thousand a day
Osman Avcı started at home in 2012, by hand, on a sac: the hot iron plate on which yufka has been baked for centuries. One sheet at a time.
What changed since is the scale, not the method. In Ermelo there are now machines doing the same thing, a hundred thousand times a day, with eighteen people alongside.
The whole storyVegan, halal and what we do and do not claim
Ensar's current site says '100% vegan and halal'. That is their own wording and we leave it where it stands, but we do not present it here as a certification mark.
Traditional yufka is flour, water and salt, and therefore by definition without egg and without milk. In this category that is the norm, not a distinction.
For vegan there is a V-Label image on the existing site. A V-Label is a real certification mark with a licence number. As long as we do not have that number, we do not show the label.
In the Netherlands halal has no legal basis. You may say 'halal' without naming the certifier, but it convinces no buyer. As soon as the body and the certificate number are known, they will be in the specification sheet.
Fresh product, so keep it chilled
Ensar's existing wording is 'koruyucu içermeyen': without preservatives. That is exactly why it is a chilled product.
Exactly how long, chilled and frozen, is given per product in the specification block. As long as Ensar does not confirm those periods, those fields stay empty.
Need yufka, at home or for your business?
For shops, kebab houses and wholesale it runs through the business side.