Breaches found by Food Safety Inspection Body in production of cottage cheese eliminated

YEREVAN, April 4. /ARKA/. Armenia’s Food Safety Inspection Body had the quality of a string of dairy products checked after the Hetq Association of Investigative Journalists unveiled March 23 the results of a study of ten kinds of cottage cheese, produced by Armenian dairy companies, namely Tamara, Marianna, Biokat, Chanakh, Ashtarak kat, Arzni kat, Ani, Marila, Bonilat and Yeremyan Father and Son.

According to the laboratory's conclusions, only two out of 10 samples of cottage cheese- Tamara and Ani- met the established norms.

E. coli bacteria were found in 5 out of 10 samples, namely in Biokat, Chanakh, Ashtarak Kat, Arzni and Bonilat. Eight samples were found to have unacceptably high levels of yeast: Marianna, Biokat, Chanakh, Ashtarak Kat, Arzni, Marila, Bonilat and Yeremyan Father and Son. Four of them also had an unacceptably high amount of fungi. The products in question were Marianna, Biokat, Ashtarak Kat, and Arzni.

The Food Safety Inspection Body examined cottage cheese produced by 9 companies - Chanakh, Father and Son Yeremyan, Bonilat, Marianna, Arzni kat, Ashtarak kat, Marila and 4 types of sour cream produced by Chanakh, Bonilat, Arzni and Biokat.

According to the findings of laboratory examination, the cottage cheese of 4 companies did not meet the requirements of the technical regulations of the Customs Union ‘On safety of milk and dairy products" in terms of lactic acid bacteria and yeast fungi.

The Food Safety Inspection Body said those companies where violations were recorded, were ordered to suspend production of cottage cheese.

After these companies eliminated the violations within the established timeframe the restrictions were removed upon the results of repeated inspections. None of the sour cream samples were found to have any violations, the regulator said. -0-