Clarification from ANSA
ANSA’s “consumer guide” states that products similar in appearance, taste and consistency to cheese, but partly made from vegetable fats, are sold on the market. That is, part of the milk fat in their composition is replaced by vegetable fats or other food ingredients.
Such products are not prohibited, but they cannot be considered dairy products. Therefore, they cannot be called, in particular, cheese, brynza, sour cream. The correct name for them is “food products based on vegetable fats”.
Moreover, as ANSA officially states, it is also strictly forbidden to use the name “cheese product” for products containing vegetable fats. To avoid misleading the consumer, food manufacturers are required to clearly indicate on the label the correct name of the product (plus a list of ingredients in order of their proportion in the product, expiration date, name/address of the manufacturer and much other useful information).
ANSA urges consumers to read the information on the product label carefully and make informed food choices based on their preferences and nutritional needs.
Manufacturers’ position
At least some Moldovan producers of dairy products have the same position as ANSA.
Thus, the executive director of the Patronal Association of Milk and Dairy Producers Lapte Carolina Linthe emphasizes: there are no cheese (cottage cheese, sour cream) and similar products – there are only cheese, cottage cheese, brynza, sour cream.
In a certain sense, the producers of real dairy products are even more radical. They believe that “vegetable fat-based food products” should be placed on store shelves as far away from real dairy products as possible. Perhaps closer to the vegetable oil shelves.
What is the crux of the problem?
The problem is that “there is no smoke without fire.” Naming in the spirit of “cheese product” did not appear yesterday and, unless efforts (sanctions) are made in this direction, will not disappear tomorrow. Just yesterday, the author of this article saw on the shelf of a solid (not mass-market) store in the refrigerator counter a product labeled “cheese product” next to ordinary, i.e. seemingly real, cottage cheese.
Moreover, even in the professional slang of Moldovan dairy farmers, for example, the term “cheese product”, rather than “simulated cheese”, has now become established. And everyone understood what we are talking about, that these are synonyms, in fact.
Some dairy industry operators note that such phrases have become commonplace due to the mass arrival of “cheese”, “cottage cheese” and similar cheap products from Ukraine.
It is clear that all this is a result of poverty: “Soviet”, “post-Soviet”. However, the current sovereign poverty is a very actual phenomenon, and not only for Moldova and its vicinities. Therefore, there is a considerable number of consumers with low income who quite consciously bought and, one can assume, will be forced to buy margarines, spreads, parizers (although this is a slightly different topic, or rather – a category of products).
Probably, they are unlikely to like the advice of commodity producers and officials, which has been frequently replicated recently: “it is better to buy a small slice of a real product than to eat imitations that are not healthy”.
The question may arise – how can such a very simple and indiscriminate consumer, in practice, distinguish a product that looks like cheese from a product that looks like cottage cheese, if all of them are labeled “food product based on vegetable fats”?
The solution from the producers of real dairy products is quite simple: let their labels have commercial names for distinction – conditional “Lakomka” or “Karapuz”.
