At the Central Laboratory for Alcoholic and Non-Alcoholic Beverages and Canned Foods, eight batches of products were denied certification. These cases are notified by the laboratory to ANSA, whose inspectors carry out surprise traceability checks on batches that have not been certified, including to identify the reasons for this. As a result, five batches of bottled wine and spirits products totaling 25943.4 dal did not reach the market. All declared batches were subsequently subjected to authorized technological processes of blending, purification, distillation, and the processed products received certificates for new batches.
Each year, the agency approves the Program of Quality Control and Supervision of Ethyl Alcohol, Alcoholic Beverages, Wine Products and Beer for the next year. In the course of its implementation, samples of products are selectively taken to determine quality, safety and naturalness indicators. A total of 250 samples were checked in 2024, including 180 samples in the Central Laboratory, where organoleptic, physico-chemical and safety indicators were determined. 13 samples did not meet the requirements due to non-compliance in the production process, including imported products: on mass concentration of malvidin diglycoside – 5 samples, ethyl alcohol – 4, mass fraction of sugars – 1 and carbon dioxide pressure – 3. These batches were banned for sale. They underwent additional technological processing.
Since some types of testing for the naturalness of wine and alcoholic products cannot be performed in Moldova, 50 samples were sent for isotope analysis to the National Research Institute of Cryogenic and Isotope Technologies in Rimnicu-Vilcea (Romania). Twelve samples did not match the botanical origin of the alcohol, i.e., there was other alcohol from plants in addition to alcohol from grapes. Four enterprises did not agree with these results and were given the right to repeat the tests.
And 20 wine samples were sent to Eurofins Analytics France in Nantes (France) to determine the harmlessness of the wines in terms of pesticide residues (10 samples) and the authenticity of the grape variety for Chardonnay and Sauvignon Blanc (10 samples). Two samples did not correspond to the declared grape variety. In one case, the proportion of Chardonnay grape variety was 3.5%, while the norm is at least 85%; the proportion of Sauvignon blanc grape variety was 51.6%.
A total of 70 protocols on offenses and plans for their elimination were drawn up in 2024, resulting in fines of about 464 thousand lei. The state budget received about 225 thousand lei.
