Counterfeit food products may be allowed to be processed into animal feed

In order to send products for feeding, they must undergo a VSE, which will be conducted by specialists from the State Veterinary Service after an appeal from a retail chain or manufacturer. During the VSE, they will evaluate the appearance of the products, accompanying documents and their availability in general, the condition of the packaging, and they will also take samples for laboratory testing. The experts will also need the results of the already conducted sanitary and epidemiological examination - this study is needed to prove that the products do not need to be destroyed. 

The document states that the initial assessment of the products must be completed within three hours, laboratory tests  within 10 days, and three hours are allocated for the final stage. The result of the examination should be a ban on the use of the products as animal feed or permission to do so. However, the time period for the examination is unreasonably long, since during the time of the initial assessment the products may already become unsuitable for use as animal feed, according to Magnit's response to the proposals of the Ministry of Agriculture, which Izvestia has become familiar with. The company proposes to reduce this period to one day.

Executive DIRECTOR  of the National Feed Union Sergey Mikhnyuk says that low-quality products, as well as expired ones, should not be transferred to feed for farm animals. Firstly, they have specially developed rations. Secondly,  ROSSELKHOZNADZOR  monitors the safety of feed and feed additives, and the question is how agricultural producers will ensure this traceability if expired or low-quality products end up in feed . "This is not a 10-day issue, but a more serious one. Therefore, I think all this will remain at the level of an unrealized project," Mikhnyuk commented. In his opinion, the main step in solving the issue of minimizing the number of expired products is more careful planning of procurement networks and moving away from KPIs in their work.

At the same time, the chairman of the Union of Consumers Petr Shelishch believes that all goods that are unsuitable for sale, but safe, should be transferred to the needs of agriculture. At the same time, all inspection procedures should be simplified as much as possible, he told Izvestia. Currently, in order to transfer products with an expired shelf life for processing, retailers must conduct a sanitary and epidemiological examination at their own expense, which makes the process unprofitable for companies.

According to Igor Karavaev, Chairman of the Presidium of the Association of Retail Companies (AKORT), the difficulty of transferring low-quality products to animal feed is currently due to the lack of procedures for examination and laboratory testing. Retail is forced to destroy such goods, as well as products with an expired shelf life. But the proposed changes to the regulatory and legal acts can become an effective way to reduce the scale of the global problem of food waste management and reduce their total volume.

In June, the Federation Council's Agricultural Committee recommended that the government consider using expired products to make animal feed. Experts interviewed by Agroinvestor had previously been skeptical about this initiative. For example, Vladimir Manaenkov, CEO of the EAEU Feed Producers Association , said that waste processors would face Rosselkhoznadzor's safety requirements and other difficulties. Mikhnyuk noted that the initiative to sell expired products is an attempt to shift responsibility for subsequent disposal, logistical or legal shortcomings of retail to the feed industry.