August 19, 2015

Russia escalates crackdown on banned Western dairy 

Russia has stepped up its crackdown on smuggled Western food including dairy products as it arrested Tuesday what the police said was an "international criminal gang" that produced cheese worth around US$30 million using banned Western ingredients.

Police said they had arrested six persons involved in the production of cheese with banned Western rennet, an enzyme-containing substance from the stomach of a calf used in cheese-making, Agence France-Presse reported.

The crackdown is part of Russia's year-old ban on food imports from Australia, Canada, the EU, the US and Norway to retaliate the trade sanctions that those countries imposed over Russia's backing of separatist rebels in Ukraine.   

The crackdown started on August 6, when authorities steamrollered almost 9 tonnes of smuggled cheese and frozen geese, among others, on orders of Russian President Vladimir Putin, who signed late July a decree ordering the trashing of all banned Western foods finding their way into Russian territory. However, citizens are still permitted to bringing in small amounts of Western food for their consumption.

"From today (August 6), agricultural produce, raw products and foods, which come from a country that has decided to impose economic sanctions on Russian legal entities or individuals ... and which are banned from import into Russia, are due to be destroyed," the agriculture ministry said in a statement to signal the start of the crackdown on banned Western foods brought into the country.

Russia's general prosecutor on Tuesday, August 18, provided a hotline for citizens to report illegal Western cheeses and pâtés.

The prosecutor's office said in a statement that those dairy products could be "dangerous to citizens' health" as they were imported "without quality compliance checks or compliance with transportation and storage conditions".  --Rick Alberto