Cheese-like products will be banned in Russia

UFA, 16 April 2018. /Bashinform News Agency, Galiya Nabieva/. In Russia, it is planned to ban production and sale of cheese-like products, which contain 50 to 100% of vegetable fats. At the same time, in stores, such goods are sold under the guise of real cheese, although they are not that, Izvestia reports. The Ministry of Agriculture has developed the necessary amendments to the technical regulations on the milk and dairy products safety.

Last year 800 thousand tons of cheese and cheese products were sold in Russia. The latter accounted for a quarter of the volume, which did not take into account the cheese-like products since there is no such term either in the regulations or in the federal law.

In addition, according to the Ministry of Agriculture, during this period, not less than 150 thousand tons of cheese, which was wholly made from vegetable fats without milk, were imported to Russia, but they were packaged and sold under the guise of dairy products.

The department notes that because of the lower cost of such goods, its producers create unfair competition in the market. In particular, the demand for raw milk is reduced, the price of which is falling, and consequently the effectiveness of state support measures to agricultural producers is decreased.