More than half of alcohol is produced with violations of state standards in Russia

UFA, 23 June 2017. /Bashinform News Agency, Olga Murtazina/. According to Rosalkogolregulirovaniye (Federal Service for Alcohol Market Regulation), 65% of alcoholic beverages produced in Russia do not correspond to those declared on the GOST labels, Izvestia reports. In 2016, the department's laboratories tested 981 samples of alcohol and alcohol-containing products. 638 samples did not comply with the state standards.

As explained by experts, due to the law on state regulation of production and turnover of ethyl alcohol, producers are obliged to make products in accordance with GOST and to place information about this on the label. At the same time, according to the law on standardization, compliance with standards is voluntary. The inconsistencies have not yet been eliminated.

Rospotrebnadzor told Izvestia that in general, alcohol production in Russia was safe and met regulatory requirements, and it could be assessed as consistently high-quality one. The Russian quality standards are even more strict than international ones. Last year, Rospotrebnadzor examined 11,300 samples of alcoholic beverages, 1,600 of which were imported, for safety and compliance with the label data. 416 samples were inadequate (3.6%), of which 79 were imported.