The organization’s research, which pointed out these problems, covered 25 provinces, which make up about a third of Russia’s land area. In total, the organisation looked at milk from 50 Russian brands and found that 14% of samples did not meet safety standards and 40% of samples had “various defects.”
There were safety concerns about contamination with E. coli or a higher number of other harmful bacteria. In the group of “various defects,” bad smell or taste was included. Researchers found that this usually means that the raw milk isn’t very good. Some of the products that were tested seemed to be fakes.
On the other hand, the study found no problems with the high amount of antibiotics. This used to happen a lot in the Russian dairy industry because the rules for giving antibiotics in feed were not as strict as they are now.
Old milk equipment
Maria Zhebit, who is in charge of public relations for the Russian union of dairy producers, Soyuzmoloko, told the Russian newspaper Moskovskaya Gazeta that some of the quality problems could be due to the fact that dairy producers in Russian provinces are using old technologies.
“Not all small businesses in a certain area have the chance to update their equipment and buy the latest technology. She said, “Many factories in the regions of Russia are still working at the same levels they were at 30–40 years ago. “Such [less advanced] technology doesn’t always make it possible to make products that meet high standards, but as we can see, almost every company tries hard to follow safety rules.
Import disruptions
Also, the Russian dairy industry has trouble getting some imported ingredients, but it’s hard to say how much this affects the quality of dairy products sold in stores.
“There are a lot of starter cultures on the market right now. The biggest companies have built up stocks of imported ingredients, and imports keep coming onto the market. Russia makes its own kefir starter cultures, but most of its other starter cultures come from other countries. “We also depend on imports when it comes to packaging,” said Zhebit.
Moskovskaya Gazeta found out that some Russian dairy producers still get parts and raw materials from Europe even though they don’t have to. A source who didn’t want to be named in the Russian dairy industry said that when sanctions were put in place at the beginning of 2022, the cost of shipping from the European Union doubled the price of everything that was brought in.
But the logistics problems have been fixed, and the prices are now 15-20% higher than they were at the beginning of the year.
