The goods of large domestic manufacturers were included in the list of hazardous due to minor breaches

As it was reported by the director of the Department of Economic Integration NCE RK "Atameken" Dana Zhunusova, NCE recently received a lot of applications of domestic producers of food products regarding the information, which was published on the website of the Kazakhstani Consumer Protection Fund about the products that do not comply with the technical regulations.

"As of October 1, 2015, this non-profit organization on the basis of information received from the Committee on Consumer Protection of the Ministry of National Economy, is developing a "registry of nonconforming products". Cross links of the primary site of the Committee pop up on the online resource of the Fund", - she said.

LLP "Kublei", LLP "Milcom" and other well-known producers are in the "black list" of the Fund for the Protection of Consumers’ Rights. At the same time suffer entrepreneurs, who have been convicted of minor violations. "The same list includes also significant violations - Staphylococcus aureus, Escherichia coli, which pose a threat to human life, and minor - labeling discrepancy, and so on", - explained the director of the Department of Technical Regulation NCE RK Sergei Radaev.

"The Fund publishes this information under the heading "black list". People see it, they do not go into the details, they think that the products could be dangerous. When we turn to CCP, they say that they are not responsible for it. They say: "We have given the authority of formation of a black list to a private non-profit organization". When retailers see this black list, they remove goods from the shop. Manufacturers suffer, as no one buys their products. When they turn to CCP, they assure that the "black list" does not involve the production ban, it is a recommendation for an entrepreneur to take an action and to eliminate violations promptly", - he said.

CCP publishes on its website the list of dangerous and prohibited goods. And the so-called register of non-conforming products is published by the Fund. "It turns out, the committee without sufficient grounds provides data to a private organization, which are a trade secret. We interpret this as an infringement of the rights of producers. There is no sanction policy of government agencies. There is neither mechanism for exclusion from this list", - protested Radaev.

"We gave them a call ourselves. They told us: "Yes, the products do not meet the standards, it is not desirable to buy them". That is, in a conversation with individuals, they interpret it that way. Thus, the information is distorted", - he added.

Dana Zhunusova stressed that on the whole NCE RK "Atameken" supports the need for consumer awareness on safety and quality of food products, because this is what people consume on daily basis. "However, inclusion in the black list is unacceptable without sufficient grounds, as it harms the reputation, first of all, domestic producers of food products. According to complaints from domestic and foreign manufacturers of food products, suddenly they found themselves in the "black list", the information on product nonconformity is supplied without explanation of a violation. The registry of the Fund doesn’t include information about the full name of the product, it doesn’t specify the date of detection of defective products, the number of a defective batch, it does not provide information about the test protocols, which establish discrepancy", - she said.

Zhunusova noted that food manufacturers fundamentally disagree with this approach, which deprives them of the ability to respond quickly to such signals. "Manufacturers of food products think it is necessary to distinguish information on nonconforming products during the formation of the registry. Information on products, which present a threat to the sanitary and epidemiological situation in the country (with the detection of staphylococci, E. coli, strains of other harmful organisms), must be of priority, in contrast to the product information with minor violations (e.g., labeling discrepancy), - she added.

"In this regard, NCE RK" Atameken" recommends CCP to adjust interaction with information resources of public associations, to exclude the possibility of publication of the information, which is ambiguous depending on degree of violations in the sphere of application of the mandatory requirements", - concluded Zhunusova.

By the way, the "black list" of Kazakhstani Consumer Protection Fund includes Russian producers. Thus, according to news agency "Penza-Press", after the inspections the fund rejected products of Penza poultry farm "Vasilyevskaya", in which bacteria was allegedly found. In response to the request of the information agency on the research conducted by the Fund, they started that they are available only to producers upon their official request. At the same time it is possible to exclude the producer from the "black list" only on the results of monitoring and laboratory testing of products, which are held by the fund, but at the means of a manufacturer.