Lactose-free products to be imported into Russia only subject to registration
Lactose-free dairy products will be imported into Russia only subject to special registration, the Deputy Prime Minister Arkady Dvorkovich stated on the sidelines of the St. Petersburg International Economic Forum.
“The Federal Service for Supervision of Consumer Rights Protection and Human Welfare of Russia and customs authorities will jointly clarify that officially lactose-free products are products, specially certified as such, all in all, it is still milk,” he said.
All clarifications will be provided in the near future, added Dvorkovich.
TASS earlier reported that the Ministry of Agriculture of the Russian Federation proposed to limit the import of lactose-free products to Russia to avoid importing traditional cheeses under the guise of lactose-free ones, in particular, from countries on the sanctions list.
When making cheeses and sour milk products, there is a side effect: reduced lactose content in finished products. Unscrupulous importers can use it to their advantage, according to the National Dairy Producers Union (Soyuzmoloko).
Such an opinion of Soyuzmoloko reinforced the concern of the Federal Veterinary and Phytosanitary Monitoring Service (Rosselkhoznadzor) due to rising imports of “lactose-free” products, following the introduction of the food embargo.
Lactose-free products were removed from the list of prohibited products, as it had no domestic analogues.