Poultry processing: upcoming changes in GOST by product names

Representative of the committee, expert on intellectual property of the Federal Scientific Center for Food Systems. Gorbatova, Ph.D. Mikhail Trifonov explains the confusing situation with the name of MEAT products especially for sfera.fm. In the interview, you will learn about upcoming changes in the poultry processing industry, protected names and projected trends in D /S. 

- What changes are expected? 

Now in the center of the discussion - products from poultry meat. it can be produced by poultry processing enterprises that are guided by the provisions of the technical regulations of the Customs Union on the safety of poultry meat and products of its processing (TR EAEU051/2021) and the national standard for poultry products (GOST R 55499-2013). There are other enterprises - meat-packing plants that buy raw materials from poultry meat and add them to meat products. In turn, for meat processing plants, the technical regulation of the Customs Union on the safety of meat and meat products (TR CU 034/2013), the interstate standard for meat products (GOST 34159-2017), as well as the interstate standard for assessing the identity and similarity of meat products ( GOST 34397-2018). The latter became the “meat” of a stumbling block: according to GOSTs, meat products must be produced from red meat, in reality, it is based on “low-caliber” raw materials from poultry meat.

— That is, we are not talking about the entire poultry processing industry? 

Right. The changes do not affect poultry meat products, however, it limits the production of poultry meat products under the names from GOSTs for red meat, in total there are 42 recipes in the list, including "Doctor", "Amateur", "Russian".

— What changes in GOST 34397-2018?

A paradoxical situation has arisen. Gost names for meat products manufactured according to TU / STO and falling under the scope of technical regulation 034 cannot be used. And products according to TU / STO from poultry meat, which do not fall under this regulation, can be labeled with Gost names. This is what we are fixing. GOST 34397-2018 includes an assessment of the names of poultry meat products.

- Still, boiled sausages make up a third of the meat market. Should we expect a "revolution"?

You don't need to worry. There is a long transition period, this can be seen from the schedule for the introduction of technical regulations 034. Poultry sausage was “sculpted” before, it was not in our power to influence the situation. For many years, the Federal Scientific Center for Food Systems. Gorbatov, and the Technical Committee 226 of Rosstandart based on him, promoted the "meat" regulation, and the "poultry" regulation appeared only 10 years later, it is difficult to promote it.

- Chicken sausage with the name "Doctor" - is it a fake? 

According to the current edition of GOST 34397-2018 - no. Formally, there is competition law , which states that the consumer must not be misled. If a chicken sausage called “Doctorskaya” is produced, the consumer is misled, but this is not controlled in any way by the supervisory authorities. The only way to suspend the production of "Doctor's" chicken sausage is to introduce changes to GOST, and each deviation from the recipe will be considered a violation of the labeling controlled by Rospotrebnadzor. 

- If the manufacturer ignores the changes in GOST, what does he risk?

Everything is going to the fact that enterprises will refuse to use Gost names for products manufactured not in accordance with GOST: retail chains will not accept such products, they do not need fines, and they are not ready to pay for each violation of ₽ 300 thousand, all parties in Mercury » will be rejected. The second factor is that, by selling through its own trading enterprises, Rospotrebnadzor can see that it will release products with incorrect labeling, they can check in Mercury, and over the past three years (since the entry into force of GOST) impose a fine for each violation.

Names of meat products protected by GOST 34397–2018 

National recipes: Altai, Armavir, Belarusian, Braunschweig, Buryat, Hungarian, Voronezh, Krakow, Krasnodar, Lvov, Maikop, Moscow, Odessa, Poltava, Polish, Russian, Rostov, Russian, Tallinn, Tambov, Tatar, Ukrainian, Estonian.

Signature Recipes: Hematogenous, Urban, Delicious, Breakfast, Doctoral, Diabetic, Custom, Snack, High-calorie, Amateur, Lux, Ordinary, Special, Special, Separate, Spicy, Canteen, Traditional, Tea

There are thousands of names in the world of sausages.

Indeed, there are thousands of recipes for boiled sausage. The list of GOST 34397–2018 does not include names that are protected by trademarks. Trademark (Rospatent) and GOST (Rosstandart) as parallel units. When in doubt, producers and retail chains get an opinion from technical experts, as it can be with "School" and "Soviet" sausages. They are not in the list, as you can see, at the same time, a phenomenon of historical continuity is being created. This may be the case with the “Moskvoretskaya” sausage, which made a splash in the media, but it was not included in this list, since the Eurasian patent system found a trademark. 

— Is GOST adaptable to other industries? 

Evaluation for the identity and similarity of names is a universal tool. However, there is no legal basis for use in other industries. There are no invented names in dairy products, they use manufacturers' brands, for example, “Green Village” or “Merry Milkman” for MILK , sour cream or cottage cheese products. These products are produced according to the same technologies and rules, and additional invented names are not required for them. In the confectionery industry, most invented names are trademarks, and the period of "patent wars" is over. The market has stabilized and the need to evaluate the identity is not foreseen.

- After the approval of the changes in GOST, what will change? 

We expect that the number of "Doctor" and "Amateur" sausages and other meat products that do not meet the requirements of GOST will decrease. The situation was approximately similar in 2022 after the release of technical regulation 034. The number of products from low-grade red meat has significantly decreased - the number of counterfeit products has decreased, but has not completely disappeared according to specifications with similar GOST names. Visually for the consumer, a boiled poultry sausage product with the name "Doctor" may not differ from the GOST products with the same name.

According to Art. 15.12 of the Code of Administrative Offenses of the Russian Federation
Sanctions for violation of the requirements of paragraph 107 of the Technical Regulations of the Customs Union "On the safety of meat and meat products" amount to manufacturers and retail chains up to 300,000 rubles.

- Will retail chains also require “clean” labeling?  

Of course. For each violation in the field of labeling, both the manufacturer and the distribution network are subject to fines. Sanctions for violation of the requirements will be up to 300 thousand rubles. 

Retail chains demand from product suppliers that the marking be “clean”: firstly, it does not violate the requirements of technical regulations, and secondly, it is not someone else’s trademark. In the new stream of students under the FVE program for assessing identity and similarity, similar questions on the border "poultry processing" industry GOST 34397-2018 The Federal Scientific Center for Food Systems will take into account the needs of retail chains that make decisions on the purchase of products. We have the practice of training employees of retail chains "Magnit", "Pyaterochka", "Auchan", who asked for clarification of certain provisions of GOST.