Hetq initiates examination of 10 types of cottage cheese produced in Armenia: only two meet standards
YEREVAN, March 17. /ARKA/. The Hetq Association of Investigative Journalists has unveiled 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.
The samples were delivered to a laboratory in a special refrigerator to preserve the temperature regime. Then they were put into sterile containers, numbered and sent for examination to Standard Dialogue lab.
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.
Out of 10 manufacturers, only Yeremyan Products (trading as Yeremyan Father and Son) and Marianna dairy company have so far responded to the investigation of Hetq.
Yeremyan Products stated that they were ready for public inspections and were responsible for the high quality of their products.
"We earned the trust of many thousands of consumers by our conscientious work and the high quality of our products, on the improvement of which we carry out daily, tireless and purposeful work," the company said in a statement.
Nevertheless, Yeremyan Products welcomed Hetq's initiative and expressed a wish that it has a mass, periodic and consistent character.
In addition to having its own laboratory, Yeremyan Products also cooperates with other certified laboratories, whose periodic checks, according to the company, also strictly control the high quality of its products.
The company noted that the violations detected could be the result of mistakes made in the secondary and even tertiary chain, as well as omissions made during the storage of dairy products.
A statement by Marianna noted that under current legislation, a certain amount of mold and yeast is allowed in the cottage cheese.
"The products produced by our plant, unambiguously, in all its indicators, meet the required standards," the company said.
"Another thing is when the temperature conditions are not observed, these microbes begin to multiply very quickly. The reason is definitely the violation of thermal and storage conditions. We will definitely find out at what stage this happened, to prevent similar cases," the statement said.
According to the Hetq publication, the Armenian Food Safety Inspectorate conducted 69 inspections in the dairy products market from January 2022 to February 2023, suspending as a result the operation of 18 producers either fully or partially. Later the decision to suspend the activities of 17 of them was reversed and one entrepreneur ceased activity. -0--
