Soyuzmoloko and the Union of producers of soft drinks and mineral waters consider it extremely dangerous to allow outsiders to enter food enterprises for the sake of an experiment on labeling
Earlier, the service issued explanations about the admission of employees of LLC “Operator-CATD” to enterprises participating in the experiment on labeling with identification tools, despite the threat of spreading coronavirus infection. As indicated in the letter of the Department, the admission of employees of LLC "Operator-CATD" is possible both at enterprises for the production of dairy products and at enterprises for the production of packaged water in the framework of appropriate labeling experiments.
Business believes that such easing of the quarantine regime at food enterprises is unjustified. "Now the enterprises of the agro - industrial complex do not allow outsiders to enter the enterprises", explained Artem Belov, General Director of Soyuzmoloko. - We take all risks of spreading coronavirus infection extremely seriously, including the threat to the lives of employees and the risk of stopping the company due to quarantine. Today, there is no urgent need to allow outsiders to enter food enterprises”.
As industry associations emphasize in their appeal, labeling is not a mandatory and necessary measure for production of dairy products or packaged water. Conducting the experiment will not affect the availability of goods to consumers in any way.
"According to the legislation, the Rospotrebnadzor has the power to develop and approve state sanitary and epidemiological rules and hygiene standards. A number of companies from the dairy industry and water producers, citing restrictive measures, explained the inability to fully participate in the pilot project. The companies asked the CATD and the regulator for clarification. The Rospotrebnadzor gave the following explanation. CATD specialists strictly follow the recommendations, including using the necessary means of protection. Moreover, more than 70% of the work on preparing production sites for labeling experiments is possible online. We understand the situation, we try to satisfy the needs of each manufacturer in order to develop the most optimal solutions for them to participate in the experiment", reported in the press service of the CATD.
"It is important to understand that within the framework of the experiment, access will have to be provided not only to employees of LLC “Operator-CATD”, but also to suppliers of technical solutions", said the head of the Union of producers of soft drinks and mineral waters Maxim Novikov.
According to Soyuzmoloko and the Union of producers of soft drinks and mineral waters, countering the spread of coronavirus infection and ensuring the availability of food products are now priorities. Business believes it is important to prevent cases of virus spread at enterprises and their consequences – quarantining of employees, shortage of labor resources, reduction of production volumes and violations of obligations to supply products.
Industry unions consider the admission of unauthorized people to enterprises who are not related to the need to ensure the production of products to be an unreasonable and unacceptable risk, and asked the Rospotrebnadzor to review the issued explanations and refuse to weaken the quarantine regime for the sake of experiments.
We remind, Soyuzmoloko is convinced that it is necessary to abandon the introduction of mandatory labeling of dairy products. The introduction of a labelling system is not practical, taking into account the already functioning traceability system (EVC) and the extremely small (less than 0.01%) share of falsified products.
According to the calculations of the Union, the costs in the first year will amount to at least 61.3 billion rubles. Additional labeling costs will reduce the availability of high-quality dairy products and increase the cost of production by at least 3-4%.The opinion of the industry organization is supported by the majority of industry participants.
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