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"Bitter taste and mold": Many packs of counterfeit butter found in St. Petersburg stores
"Public Control" visited stores of large retail chains in St. Petersburg to check the quality of butter. The conclusion was disappointing. Of the 19 brands, 14, or 70%, turned out to be completely counterfeit products and did not contain any milk fat at all. In addition, only one sample was successfully tested. The rest had big questions.
- Laboratory tests show that all counterfeit samples are vegetable fat spreads that do not contain milk fat. However, the packaging of the counterfeit butter states the name "butter" and GOST 32261-2013 is written next to it, which misleads consumers, experts believe.
Of the 19 samples purchased in 10 stores, only 5 were made entirely from milk and without non-dairy fats. But the experts did not like some of its characteristics. For example, the "Traditional" butter of the "Ozerny Krai" brand with a fat content of 82.5% had a "smelly taste and smell." This indistinct and empty substance was found in butter under the "Farm Product" logo of "A.V. Vasilyeva Farm." The manufacturer was caught cheating. The information on the label indicates the farm origin of the product, but the product was manufactured by an industrial enterprise.
- An unusual taste and smell often indicate that the product is counterfeit. Real butter should have a creamy taste and aroma. But a fatty and sour taste means that the product is oxidizing fats, which poses a threat to the body," explained Anatoly Brusentsev, an expert in the field of dairy product quality.
The only sample that did not receive a single comment, including on the mass fraction of fat content, was the Vasilkovo Pole brand butter (82.5%), the price of which was 767 rubles per kilogram.
Price tags in retail chains are often bright yellow, but the quality of the goods is much lower. In one of them, five butter substitutes were found at the same time, three of which were produced at the Kursk Cheese Factory and two at the Love Products company. Moreover, on the same counter we found a pack of "Vologda Traditions", which had much less milk fat than stated. The market share was 71.3%, not 82.5%. The oil packages "Slavyanskoe" and "Maito Joki" also turned out to be suspicious.
The products of Gorizont and Molsbyt, registered in the Bryansk region, were called fake butter. The moisture content of the butter substitute for molbitic acid 82.5%, which has a rancid taste and aroma, was 25.2%, and the content of the milk fat substitute was 71.7%.
- Additionally, mold was found on the surface of the product. At the same time, the counterfeit products were sold at a price of 72.5% of the price of high-quality "peasant" butter (556 rubles per kilogram), experts note.
As for Rosselkhoznadzor, "Public Control" reports that warnings for violations have been issued to the following manufacturers: "Product of Love", "Voskhod", "Slivochnaya Strana", "Volotovsky Production Plant", "Starorusskoye Moloko", "Milkovo" and others. I did it. "Gorizont", "Molsbyt" and "Mosalsky Dairy Plant". You can read the full study on butter here.
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