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“The issues observed in various types of dairy products have been voiced during the whole year. The attention on this issue increased after the monitoring conducted by the public segment,” Head of “Informed and Protected Consumer” NGO Babken Pipoyan noted during the meeting with the reporters.

He noted that recently the State Food Security Service, which is the authorized body in this sphere, reacted to the activities carried out by the public sector and conducted its own monitoring in the dairy market.

“Unfortunately I have to state that the statement released by the state body did not provide any solutions to the issues at hand. Moreover the statement gave way to more questions. It stated that that the dairy market had been studied and the names of the companies which had made violations in dairy production had been listed. However it did not mention which production the violations referred to. In addition to this no names of major companies were mentioned in the statement, the list featured small businesses and private entrepreneurs that do not enjoy publicity. However we all know that the main consumption volumes are not provided by that companies,” B. Pipoyan said.

In his words the monitoring was especially conducted in this period as New Year is coming and the dairy products consumed by the customers are to be kept for a loner period, as the production process halts from 30 December and will resume from 5-6 January.

B. Pipoyan noted that no one expect the authorized body to manage to carry out inspections and to impose fines as he thinks that it is not relevant.

“Unfortunately our studies have revealed violation in the dairy products of all the major companies. We have mentioned about it our statement. There are some companies where violations have not been revealed taking into the security indicators our monitoring is based on. We have not provided the names of those products as we have chosen 3-4 indicators to reveal the violations, however the number of security indicators is greater and the public segment cannot afford carrying out inspection which is based on all of them,” Head of the NGO noted.

He underscored the importance of checking the amount of antibiotics. However in his words such an expertise is quite expensive and the public segment cannot afford it, the state body must carry it out.

Meanwhile B. Pipoyan also noted that the revealed violations regarding the intestinal bacteria, yeasts, as well as mold can hardly impose life-threatening dangers, however they certainly present a threat to the health.

In response to the question who is to blame for today’s situation B. Pipoyan said that the manufacturer must ensure the security of the product and the authorized body must control the production process.

“When narrow professional approach is not applied to tackle these issues the quality of state control is below average not to mention that it has a more formal role and it is difficult to expect any changes,” Head of “Informed and Protected Consumer” NGO Babken Pipoyan noted.

He also added that on Monday all the results of the expertise, as well as some offers will be submitted to the State Food Security Service.