Meat on display: the network sells tons of products without documents
At the moment, more than 10 thousand advertisements for the sale of meat and fish are posted on Russian Internet resources, which do not indicate the availability of documents for them, in particular, veterinary certificates, Izvestia found out. Private individuals offer canned food, smoked meats, raw carcasses and semi-finished products of their own production. The quality and safety of the products here are guaranteed only in words, without providing papers confirming the safety of the goods. How such trade is organized on the Internet and what danger undocumented food products can pose is described in the Izvestia article.
Tons of "gray" products
About 10,000 ads for the sale of meat, fish and products made from them without guaranteed documents are currently posted on social networks, messengers and online platforms, Izvestia estimates. At the same time, 1.2 thousand sellers sell goods on sites that require accompanying documentation, but no veterinary certificates or other documents are attached to the advertisements verified by the publication.
In their ads, merchants always indicate that their products are "fresh and of high quality." Some give a guarantee that they have all the certificates available. Izvestia, under the guise of a buyer, contacted three people selling meat and asked for documents. Two of them stated that they currently "do not have them in their hands." Another one agreed only on the condition that a bulk order would be made.
Also, one of the fish sellers said that he had been selling fish products via messenger for six months and had not even "thought twice" about legally registering his activities.
— I eat my catch myself, feed my family. Neighbors and friends buy. Why register and draw attention to yourself once again? — he declared.
In accordance with the law "On Veterinary Medicine" and the order of the Ministry of Agriculture, veterinary accompanying documents must be issued for products of animal origin. A simple man in the street has no right to sell food — he must be registered as an individual entrepreneur, a legal entity or self-employed. At the same time, the self-employed have the right to sell only processed meat and cannot supply it to shops and restaurants.
Currently, some ads have more than 5,000 views, as well as dozens of customer reviews, usually positive.
"We quickly communicated, paid, and the courier was called immediately. I have the crab in an hour. Not over-frozen. It looks decent," one of them says.
"Excellent salmon at a good price! It was delivered on time. The fish was frozen, in special packaging, with a catch time and weight, as in a good store. The fish is delicious and of high quality. Everything was fine with me. Thanks to the seller!" — recommends another customer who liked the seller.
The demand for handmade goods is due to both the popularity of online resources where ads are placed, and the fashion for everything homemade and eco-friendly, according to Oleg Pavlov, head of the Public Consumer Initiative organization.
— The buyer trusts the product made at home more. Allegedly, it does not contain harmful additives and is of better quality than factory products, some of which can be falsified," the expert explained.
According to him, this opinion is shared not only by pensioners and the middle age group, but also by young people. For delicacies made by hand on eco-farms, the buyer is willing to pay a price higher than the market price. And regular chicken and pork labeled "from a personal farm" can cost much less at some sites than in a store, which also attracts customers.
Thus, the cost of products of our own production varies from 350 rubles to 2 thousand rubles for canned food, from 400 rubles to 4 thousand rubles for meat and poultry carcasses, from 500 rubles to 10 thousand rubles for fish and seafood. The most expensive products are game, canned food, and rare fish species.
The administration of online platforms and websites does not always monitor the document flow of sellers or does not have time to control it, says Anastasia Beloglazova, a lawyer at the European Legal Service.
— Most often, the sites do not check the certificates for the sale of food from ordinary private traders. There is no law yet that obliges them to do this. The responsibility for their health lies with the buyer. Some sites regulate this issue, but only as much as possible: there is too much traffic there," the expert believes.
In December 2024, the State Duma adopted a law that obliges sellers and owners of Internet sites to indicate in the information about the product information about certificates and declarations confirming its compliance with the established requirements. However, this provision of the law "On Consumer Rights Protection" will enter into force only on September 1, 2026.
Izvestia sent requests to Roszdravnadzor, Rospotrebnadzor and market players with a request to assess the situation.
Who sells food online
It follows from the published ads that most sellers of home—made products are farmers, hunters, and fishermen. The ads are also published by housewives who cook meals in their own kitchen and sell them for extra income.
Some of them do not follow hygiene requirements or are unable to set up production that meets all sanitary standards. Therefore, buying products from such sellers is a lottery, Oleg Pavlov believes.
— In fact, this is the same purchase on the street with your own hands. The only difference is that the person doesn't even know what the seller looks like or where he is. The profile photo and the specified location of the seller do not always correspond to reality. In messengers where products are sold, this moment is not regulated at all," he said.
Doctors point out that poisoning with fish and meat most often leads to either acute intestinal infection or food poisoning. Patients have abdominal pain, fever, diarrhea and vomiting, says gastroenterologist Andrey Yakushev.
— Externally and in terms of taste, infected products may not differ in any way from high-quality ones. Heat treatment is not a guarantee either — many bacteria survive at extreme temperatures. Also, if livestock is slaughtered and transported improperly, parasites can get into the meat," he said.
Alexander, a resident of the Moscow region, told Izvestia about such a poisoning case. In August 2024, he ordered a smoked goose for the table via a social network. The product looked absolutely fine, but two hours later the man felt unwell.
— The classic symptoms of poisoning have appeared. I spent two days recovering and taking medication. When I wrote to the seller, he began to assure me that the product could not be of poor quality, and then he added me to the blacklist altogether," the victim said.
A similar case occurred in 2023 with a resident of Yekaterinburg, who, in order to save money, bought raw meat from an ad in a messenger. After cooking dinner, she began to have fever and vomiting. The paramedics helped.
The consequences can be more serious. The most dangerous form of poisoning is botulism, and even buyers of official products are not immune from it. In the summer of 2024, the largest outbreak of such an infection in recent years occurred — people bought salads through delivery services. Of the 417 victims in eight regions, two died.
Sometimes the activities of illegal sellers are stopped, but they do not always manage to prevent the problem. In September 2023, meat infected with the African swine fever virus entered Russian stores. Rosselkhoznadzor has registered about 10 such cases.
"This situation became possible due to omissions in the work of the business to ensure the biological protection of pig farms, as well as the shadow sale of large volumes of "gray" pork and food waste through online trading platforms, social networks and messengers. The meat was seized and destroyed in compliance with all precautions," the ministry said at the time.
What is the penalty for selling food
Some platforms and messengers tend not to disclose the identity of sellers. Therefore, it is difficult for consumers who are faced with nonconditioning to protect their rights and seek compensation.
— Some people don't even try to do this, which is why many incidents remain out of the sight of law enforcement agencies, - says Oleg Pavlov, head of the Public Consumer Initiative organization.
In February 2024, the Leninsky District Court of Voronezh received a criminal case against two meat sellers. They were accused of violating veterinary regulations, which entailed grave consequences (Part 1 of Article 249 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation, up to two years in prison). According to investigators, the accused arrived, transported and sold infected beef after slaughtering livestock, which led to the spread of anthrax in the region, the introduction of quarantine in Voronezh and damage to enterprises in the region. The sellers were fined 100,000 rubles.
In the same year, law enforcement officers detained an illegal shipment of meat worth 300 million rubles in Moscow. The cost of imported products is estimated at almost 10 billion rubles.
According to Dmitry Bezdelin, a leading lawyer at the European Legal Service, in such cases they can also be convicted for poor-quality provision of services (Article 238 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation) and for violation of sanitary and epidemiological rules that led to poisoning of people (Article 236 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation). The maximum term is up to 10 years in prison.
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