Elena Topnikova: There should be clear criteria and methods in the assessment of falsification

The expert noted that if natural products and products with substitutes are on the consumer shelf under the correct name, then everything is fine. However, products containing non-dairy fats often end up on the shelf in the form of falsified cheeses and butter. A lot of measures are being taken to reduce the share of falsification. The fight against falsification is a state task, which is included in many programs and documents, and ministries, departments, unions act as a united front for reducing the share of falsification.

‘Nevertheless, there is falsification on the market, and if in general the share of falsification is estimated at around 2.5 - 3%, the share of falsification in budget and social institutions increases significantly,’ comments Elena Topnikova. ‘The volume of such products supplied to kindergartens, school institutions, sanatoriums, nursing homes, etc.is already 12%. Here, of course, our system of forming public procurement at the lowest price is to blame. We have good standards that are designed to ensure that high-quality cheeses and butter are supplied to children's institutions. There are certain requirements for reducing the caloric content of these products, the mass fraction of salt, strict requirements for microbiological indicators, for the process of tracing the production of cheese and butter at the enterprise itself; repackaging in other organizations is not allowed. There are documents available, but we need an incentive for the manufacturer to produce these products that are in demand in the public procurement system.

The speaker noted that there should be clear criteria and methods in the assessment of falsification. There is the 184th Federal Law, and if there are not enough methods, then the legislation in the field of technical regulation involves the use of other methods that must be certified and entered in the industry register.

Elena Topnikova explained that the methods for detecting falsification are conditionally divided into 4 groups, which are based on the assessment of fatty acid, sterol composition, triglyceride composition and on the difference of physico-chemical constants.

‘Of course, the most common method of assessing falsification is chromatography, i.e. the assessment of the fatty acid composition, and those laboratories with which you work must follow all the procedures for analyzing and processing chromatograms very clearly. Otherwise, there will be inaccuracies in the calculations, in the reflection of indicators, and a false positive conclusion will be made about the falsification of the product. There are still a lot of violations in the test protocols,’ the expert said. 

Elena Topnikova said that the feeding diet of lactating animals has been changing very much recently, individual additives significantly affect the fatty acid composition. Therefore, when evaluating the falsified product, it should be taken into account that an increase in the content of palmitic acid, a decrease in oleic and stearic acids indicates exactly a change in the feeding diet.

According to Elena Topnikova, the All-Russian Research Institute of the Dairy Industry has developed a GOST project on the method of identifying the composition, fat phase and determining the mass fraction of fat. The first version of the project will soon be considered by the technical committee, interested enterprises will have to consider this project and give their proposals. Not only a set of standards is important for the industry now, but also, most importantly, criteria and a clear application algorithm so that this does not lead to excessive control.

The speaker believes that in order to detect falsification, it is necessary to specify the procedure for detecting fatty acids more clearly. If deviations are detected, the second step is sterols. It is necessary to specify the procedure for taking into account the error of methods when evaluating test results, and it should also be possible to adjust the range of fatty acids without compromising the quality of the product. 

‘At some sites, the issue of excluding of liquid biological media as a control method is being discussed, but we consider this an unacceptable step in the fight against falsification,’ the expert notes. ‘But then the first control method will be sterols, and this is a very expensive method, and then the burden on the business will increase. In addition, when discussing the method of triglyceride composition, the presence of the method is not as important as the presence of criteria.