It will be low-fat: 25% of butter turned out to be of poor quality after inspections throughout the country

Almost a quarter of the butter tested by the Rosselkhoznadzor turned out to be of poor quality, including counterfeit. As reported to Izvestia in the federal service, in general, the share of milk and dairy products in which violations were found was 13%. Meanwhile, after extensive inspections of 14 producers of low-quality dairy products, which were previously reported by Izvestia, criminal and administrative cases have been initiated. Despite the mandatory labeling, counterfeit goods are not actually blocked at the cash registers today, the State Duma said. The deputies proposed amendments to the legislation in order to promptly seize and block the sale of low-quality goods and counterfeit goods. Izvestia investigated the scale of the problem and what solutions it had.

The amount of counterfeit dairy products

According to the results of laboratory tests conducted by the Rosselkhoznadzor for 2024 of samples of milk and dairy products, it turned out that 13.09% of them did not correspond to the composition stated by the manufacturers. A total of 10,199 product samples were selected. This was told to Izvestia by the service. Butter has the most falsification — in 24.82% of samples. This is followed by cheeses (16.18%), cottage cheese (14.40%), milk powder (13.24%) and sour cream (11.22%).

A large share fell on domestic manufacturers — 15.37% of the 8,648 samples had a composition different from that declared by the manufacturer, the Rosselkhoznadzor noted. In general, according to the ministry, by the end of 2024, compared with 2023, the share of such dairy products increased from 12.04% to 13.9%.

The most common violations are inconsistencies in the mass fraction of fat, adulteration of milk with fats of non-dairy origin, the presence of starch, baking soda, food additives and organic acids that are not declared in the product. In addition, in a number of cases, the Rosselkhoznadzor detected microbial transglutaminase in products prohibited for use in the Russian Federation.

— The data presented reflect only the percentage of violations identified based on the results of Rosselkhoznadzor research on the dairy market. Based on these data, it is impossible to draw conclusions about the state of the market as a whole, the press service of the Ministry of Economic Development told Izvestia.

The alarming situation with a large amount of counterfeit "milk" on the market is confirmed by recent inspections of the department in relation to 14 enterprises, which were previously reported by Izvestia. Oleg Pavlov, the head of the Public Consumer Initiative, asked the Prosecutor General's Office to monitor their work based on the results of laboratory tests. Among these companies are TMK Tvertsa JSC, Molprom LLC, Furmanovsky Gormolzavod JSC, Voznesenskoye LLC, Baltcom Uni LLC, Maszhirprom LLC, Love Product LLC, Kursk Cheese Factory LLC, Voskhod LLC, Horizon LLC, LLC "Creamy country", LLC "Molsbyt", LLC "Milkovo" and LLC "Mosalsky dairy Plant".

Samples for their testing were purchased at Dixy, Magnit, Svetofor, OK, Verniy, Semishagoff, Sezon and others stores, and the manufacturing enterprises themselves were located in 10 regions, including Moscow, Leningrad, Tver, Ivanovo, Saratov, Kursk, Tula regions and Tatarstan.

"In relation to the manufacturers and batches of products indicated in the appeal, the Rosselkhoznadzor territorial departments conducted four on-site inspections, 353 preventive measures, which resulted in 15 rulings on administrative offenses under Part 1 of Article 14.43 of the Administrative Code of the Russian Federation, and 45 warnings about the inadmissibility of violating mandatory requirements. 18 users have been blocked from accessing the Federal State Information System in the field of Veterinary medicine, and decisions have been made to invalidate declarations of conformity for dairy products from eight manufacturers," reads the response to Oleg Pavlov, which was reviewed by Izvestia.

The results of the detected falsification of these manufacturers were also confirmed by the prosecutor's office and Rospotrebnadzor. In one case, the manufacturer turned out to be a ghost company. The Prosecutor's office of the Tula region, having left for an unscheduled inspection of Mosalsky Dairy Plant LLC at 22 Shkolnaya Street, Kuzmino-Domozhirovo village, Shchekinsky district, Tula region, did not find the enterprise there.

And the prosecutor's office of the Tver region opened a criminal case against TMK Tvertsa JSC due to the fact that the company, despite the ban to stop producing products that did not meet the quality, continued its activities.

— Despite the fact that the government has created all the conditions for detecting and blocking counterfeiting using state labeling systems, the lack of coordination of the necessary regulations on the part of the Ministry of Energy, unfortunately, does not allow illegal products to be blocked at cash registers and in public procurement. As soon as this mechanism is operational, the situation with the sale of counterfeit dairy products to consumers will be reduced to zero," Oleg Pavlov explained to Izvestia.

According to him, of course, the sale of low-quality products is fraught with consequences for the health of consumers, including dangerous poisoning.

It should be noted that one of the high-profile accusations against the sale of counterfeit products was made against the Svetofor retail chain. The Rosselkhoznadzor stated that the network is a platform for the sale of counterfeit goods. "In February and March of this year, sales of counterfeit products, gross violations of technical regulations, veterinary legislation and traceability were recorded at the outlets of the specified network in a number of regions of the country," the Rosselkhoznadzor website says. According to the agency, all unsafe products were disposed of. 76 stores were suspended by the court.

Why is the counterfeit not blocked at the cash registers

As explained to Izvestia in the State Duma, labeling of dairy products has been introduced in Russia, but its falsification is not blocked at the cash registers.

— The problem is that the counterfeit is not promptly blocked at the cash registers. In this regard, I have prepared amendments to the legislation, which have already been supported by Rospotrebnadzor and the Ministry of Industry and Trade, but the Ministry of Economic Development does not support them. In other words, we have created in Russia the only product labeling system in the world that allows us to protect the health of our nation. It could start paying for itself, but we still can't use it to its full potential," Sergei Lisovsky, deputy chairman of the State Duma Committee for the Protection of Competition and a representative of the United Russia faction, explained to Izvestia.

In this regard, the deputy sent an appeal to the Deputy Prime Minister, head of the government staff Dmitry Grigorenko with a proposal to amend the legislation and give representatives of Rospotrebnadzor (chief sanitary doctors and their deputies) the right to make decisions banning or suspending the sale of products that do not meet the requirements.

Currently, Government Decree No. 1944 establishes the basis for prohibiting the sale of labeled goods — it can be adopted by decision of the state control bodies within their powers. However, the federal law "On State Control and Municipal Supervision" allows restricting the turnover of such goods only in court. At the same time, Article 90 of the law provides for the right to establish other decisions on the types of control.

Izvestia sent requests to the Ministry of Industry and Trade, the office of Deputy Prime Minister Dmitry Grigorenko, asking them to express their attitude to the amendments.

The Ministry of Economic Development also noted that the mechanisms for prohibiting the circulation of counterfeit products have already been approved by the Federal Law "On Technical Regulation", and the list of cases of banning the sale of products at the checkout was approved by Decree of the Government of the Russian Federation dated 11/21/2023 No. 1944.

"At the same time, the issue of improving the mechanism for blocking counterfeit products at cash desks (or the mechanism for prohibiting the sale of counterfeit products) is being worked out at various sites, including the site of the State Commission for Combating Illicit Trafficking in Industrial Products," the ministry's press service said.

As part of this work, the Ministry of Economic Development considered the amendments prepared by Sergey Lisovsky, and now the review is ongoing, the department added.

The CRPT noted that the research results show an increase in the effectiveness of Rosselkhoznadzor inspections, which conduct them more specifically against obvious violators and identify violations, including falsification.

According to the CRPT, the overall level of counterfeiting in dairy products in Russia has decreased from 30% to 0.02%.

— Such a reduction in the level of counterfeiting occurred due to the integration of the labeling system with Mercury: when issuing a production veterinary certificate, the manufacturer submits information about the raw materials used to Mercury. When labeled products are put into circulation, the manufacturer submits the same veterinary certificate to the Honest Sign system. There is a check for compliance with the veterinary certificate. Only then does each unit associated with the certificate continue to move to the consumer. If the certificate is subsequently revoked, the product is immediately highlighted for the control authorities, business and consumer," the organization's press service explained.

Izvestia also sent a request to Soyuzmoloko with a request to give its assessment of the situation with counterfeiting on the market. In February of this year, the association also announced that it was registering an increase in the share of low-quality dairy products, with a particularly difficult situation in the cheese and butter segment. Therefore, as indicated in Soyuzmolok, state contracts most often supply products with a milk fat substitute under the guise of dairy products, including to kindergartens or schools. To reduce the threat, the association proposes to integrate the public procurement system with FGIS Mercury, which tracks products, and to consolidate this in law.

"Business control needs to be tightened, and it's not just and not so much about canceling unscheduled inspections, it should be regular inspections of regulatory authorities at enterprises," Georgy Ostapkovich, director of the HSE Center for Economic Studies, told Izvestia.

According to him, of course, the business is going through a difficult time and needs support, but at the same time it must produce high-quality products that do not pose a threat to consumer health.

Pavel Shapkin, Chairman of the National Consumer Rights Protection Union, believes that the reason for the increase in counterfeiting is, among other things, the fact that consumers are trying to buy cheaper goods, so retail chains impose price requirements on manufacturers. However, according to him, the cheaper product is mainly due to a reduction in its cost, that is, the use of less components for production.

If we talk about dairy products, first of all we are talking about vegetable fats, palm oil and so on. The expert notes that in this case, the product can be sold as legal, but its quality will be low. He also noted that today, if Rospotrebnadzor detects such a counterfeit, it may not be blocked or withdrawn from trade, and its manufacturer gets off with just a fine.