The opinion of a dairy plant on labeling: the industry doesn't understand what it's for!

Источник: The DairyNews
According to the head of the company, which processes 80 tons of milk per day -problems in the situation with the labeling of dairy products are on the surface, but no one talks about them, writes The DairyNews.

This is largely due to the fact that the authorities, the labeling operator and numerous factories do not hear each other. Not to mention the fact that local officials often do not possess any data.

- The "Honest mark" system states that it solves the problem of falsification. This is not true. The current system of electronic veterinary certification "Mercury" can solve this problem if it is finalized and we will continue to work in it. It even keeps track of reconstituted milk! You can imagine - they import Iranian milk powder (with veterinary accompanying documents) and restore it - "Mercury" can define such plants! And the labeling is only a QR code that does not guarantee anything, it is bought by any manufacturer that can produce whatever they want and no one will check - the code is already bought, - says the head of the plant. - No one is obliged to disclose the composition of the product to the CATD, and in principle can write any composition on the label, which some do.

The true reasons for introduction of labeling are not told to the industry. Perhaps someone wants to make money, and the state will use this tool to tighten tax traceability, says the expert.

According to the head of the plant, there are more serious problems than just the discrepancy between the labeling and the stated goals.

For example, the representative of the CATD Revaz Yusupov in his comments and interviews in the media indicates that a cheap method of printing was found for the dairy industry.

Just to remind, according to the CATD, this method does not require any costs for equipping production lines with printing equipment, and solutions developed in other industries, including for retail, relieve the load on working with labeling for other links. 

- No one talked to milk processors and did not find out how the shipment of perishable fresh dairy products at small regional enterprises takes place, - emphasizes the representative of the plant from the Volga Federal district. - We won't order anything from the print shop. We produce perishable products. Applications come every day. Our packaging is printed in Sweden. We ensure high quality of the product thanks to this package, which we order three months in advance. How will we know what label and in what quantity to attach? What kind of requests will come from chains and convenience stores? How can we find out? And I am obliged to specify the second point in the QR code of the batch number, how much product is poured, what fat content is. How can I know this from perishable products? This applies to all plants that produce fresh products.

According to the expert, in the regions, perishable products are the basis of production for most factories, and even ultra-pasteurized milk is the second thing after fresh products with a short shelf life are produced.

- Our ultra-pasteurized products are produced on a residual basis. And then we cannot know how much will be produced every day. Representatives of the CATD say that it seems it will not be expensive to label! Like, order in printing houses and you will have everything. NO one will print there - everything will be done on the spot. And it will cost a lot of money, - said the director of the plant.

- We have already contacted manufacturers of equipment, printers and related solutions and they were at our factory. One piece of equipment with a tape will cost approximately from 70 thousand euros to 250 thousand euros. Because we can't put a QR code on the packaging in the stream. Even if we want to - we get 15% of defects! Can you imagine 15% of waste products?!  Together with the packaging.

250 thousand euros is the cost of the printer for all lines, and in addition there is a machine that must glue, a third machine - for reading. The latter must also reject unreadable codes.

- I'm not saying that there are risks of bad code printing, that somewhere it will be rejected, that there is packaging of very poor quality (like cheap film) - I have no idea how to glue it there. And all this will be wastes at the expense of the supplier. If the code in the store was not readable - a fine to the supplier. All this will affect the cost of the final product for the consumer, - said the expert.

According to him, major packaging suppliers - from Ecoline to Tetra Pak - are not ready to say where to put the labeling equipment.

- They all say that they do not understand yet how to do it and are only working on this issue, - said the director, stressing that today the QR code of "Honest mark" contains less information than the packaging itself.

- For our plant, only one-time cost for the equipment will be 30 million rubles. This is without taking into account the cost of software and human resources, time spent. We did not consider consumables and adjustment, - said the head of the plant, stressing that, for example, a tinfoil package of butter does not accept printing a QR code at all. This also applies to "jug" packages and films. And it remains only to glue stickers.

The processes will slow down, the wastes will grow, and problems will not be solved alone. We need to solve this together - with packaging manufacturers, with retail chains, - believes the director of the plant.

The whole situation suggests that those who impose labeling do not understand the dairy industry at all. Many technological nuances are not taken into account in the business processes of the “Honest mark” system.

- There is a distributor between the plant and the retail and in Siberia, the medium-sized retail is developed, how will they work? Small and medium-sized retail often takes not pallets, but pieces. And if you have 20 pieces in a box, and the store asks for 15 pieces of goods - you must not make a mistake, you should go through it, record everything - so as not to lose. This is a gigantic job", said the expert.

- Another important problem is that we all have to change cliches in factories. Now everyone will pay for changing the cliche to the packaging manufacturers. For example, we have one cliché - about 300 euros. For those who have 10 product lines that is one thing, but what about those who have hundreds of them? Additional expenses, - noted the milk processor.

In addition, the representative of the industry noted that regional agricultural departments do not help the plants in any way. And often do not have the information. All communication goes directly with Moscow.

- We don't understand the purpose of labeling. The "Mercury" was difficult for the market - but clear, and the labeling is still seen only one way - to earn money on the processors. Our packaging has everything. The only thing that is not there is a crypto-key that will be given to us by the CATD when we pay them money", the expert said.

If you want to express your opinion on labeling and tell us about specific problems that you encountered during the process of studying the issue or conducting an experiment on the implementation of the system - write to us at as@dairynews.ru or am@dairynews.ru

Read more at © DairyNews.ru

30.01.2024
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