Russian food controller targets Ukraine cheese

Tension mounts between the dairy sectors in Russia and the Ukraine as chief food controller in Russia Gennady Onishchenko publically criticises the quality of cheeses from the other country. Perhaps one reason is the growing success of Ukrainian cheese exports to Russia where the domestic dairy sector still only manages to cover just 50% of demand with its own output. Onishchenko claims that Ukrainian cheese – or at any rate the products exported to Russia – is not 100% real cheese. He argues that there’s no official limit to the amount of vegetable oil being added during the production of Ukrainian cheese and that he believes a significant amount is therefore used. In the last 10 months, according to a report in Moscow News, 55,000 t of Ukrainian cheeses have been shipped into Russia. This tonnage is reckoned to equal around 7% of the latter country’s total annual consumption.