Over 90% of dairy products on Russian market meet required quality - Tkachev
MOSCOW. June 22 (Interfax) - Russian Agricultural Minister Alexander Tkachev says that over 90% of dairy products on the Russian market meet the required quality.
"The vast majority, over 90%, of dairy products, after checks by Rosselkhoznadzor and Rospotrebnadzor, correspond to all GOST [state] standards and quality," Tkachev told journalists on Wednesday.
Tkachev was commenting on a statement by Russia's Federal Service for Veterinary and Phytosanitary Surveillance (Rosselkhoznadzor) that in Russia milk is often falsified not only with water but with starch, chalk, soda, lime and even plaster.
"Undoubtedly, they were talking about possible falsifications, possible methods of falsification," the minister said. "There are, unfortunately, a lot, but it is a paltry amount of products and consignments," he said.
"Rosselkhoznadzor was simply saying that those kinds of situations happen, but there is no point in talking about tonnes [of falsified products] or percentages. That doesn't have anything to do with real situation," he said.
After Rosselkhoznadzor's announcement, the National Milk Producers Union sent a letter to Deputy Prime Minister Arkady Dvorkovich and Tkachev with a request to check the accuracy of the information about the falsification of dairy products.
The letter said that Rosselkhoznadzor and its subordinate institutions do not have the necessary qualifications to work with finished dairy products.
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