Roskachestvo claims that only 1% of dairy products on the market are counterfeit

It turned out that, in general, the products presented on the shelf are of high quality, but counterfeit products are also found, which are less than 1% on the market as a whole.

According to Rosstat, Russians drink 5.7 million tons of milk per year, 2.8 million tons of fermented milk products and eat 811 thousand tons of cheeses and cheese products. Of these, falsified, that is, such milk where milk fat is replaced by vegetable fat - less than 1%. It was in this volume that Soyuzmoloko recorded a shortage of this product on the market in 2020. This means that the manufacturers replaced the milk fat in the product with vegetable fat, without indicating this on the package.

In the study of dairy products, vegetable fat instead of dairy was identified in the products of eight brands out of 90 studied. Manufacturers of two brands of sour cream out of 50 studied also replaced vegetable fat with vegetable fat. Producers of two brands of Russian cheese and two brands of processed cheese “Creamy” did the same. Vegetable fats were not detected in the study of Tilsiter cheese and curd mass.

The organization notes that Russians are increasingly giving preference to dairy products, which do not contain milk fat substitutes (MLF). “Changes in product labeling and a growing trend towards healthy eating since 2019 have contributed to a reorientation of demand from cheese products to traditional cheeses. As a result, the demand for cheese products continued to decline (-14%), for cheese - to grow (+ 7%)”, - the study says. The situation changed somewhat during the crisis - from the second half of 2020, due to a decrease in household incomes, the growth in the production of cheaper products with MMF resumed. "A similar trend is observed in respect of milk fats: the demand for margarine and spreads decreased by 9%, and butter consumption increased by 3%", - says in the study.

Russia produces 32.2 million tons of raw milk every year. Just over 22 million is spent on recycling. At the same time, the country's level of self-sufficiency in dairy products in 2020 reached 84.1%. This means that only 15.9% of dairy products are imported into the country. The main suppliers of dairy products are Belarus, which accounts for 71% of imported products, as well as New Zealand, Argentina, Uruguay and Kyrgyzstan.