The Ministry of Agriculture of the Russian Federation explained why parmesan would not be excluded from food counter-sanctions

Italian Ambassador to Russia Pasquale Terraciano said earlier in an interview with RIA Novosti that the idea of excluding parmesan from food counter-sanctions was discussed with the Russian authorities. According to him, lactose-free products are not prohibited for import into the Russian Federation, and parmesan does not contain lactose. However, so far a negative decision has been made on this issue. The Ministry of Agriculture confirmed that the Ministry has considered the possibility of registering Italian Parmesan as a lactose-free food product.

The Ministry indicated that, according to the technical regulations on the safety of milk and dairy products, "lactose-free milk processing product" contains no more than 0.1 grams of lactose per 1 liter of ready-to-use product in which lactose is hydrolyzed or removed.

‘According to VNIIMS (All-Russian Research Institute of Metrological Service – editor’s note), the technology of production of hard cheeses provides for the fermentation of lactose to glucose and galactose monosaccharides for several days (up to two weeks), and then the cheese maturation under certain conditions,’ added in the Ministry of Agriculture.

‘Earlier, the institute provided protocols for the production of Parmigiano Reggiano cheese, on the basis of which it was revealed that the fermentation of lactose in this technology occurs rapidly, in 48 hours. However, further the process of cheese maturation proceeds naturally under the action of lactic acid microorganisms. Taking into account the above, despite the low lactose content in cheeses, it is not possible to classify them as specialized lactose-free products,’ concluded in the Ministry.