“During the laboratory studies of frozen pork delivered from Germany by the company Wohlert GmbH & Co. Kühllogistik KG, mesophilic aerobic and facultative anaerobic bacteria, coliform bacteria and listeria was identified,” said a spokesperson from Russian veterinary watchdog Rosselkhoznadzor.
“Mesophilic aerobic and facultative anaerobic bacteria and coliform bacteria was identified in frozen pork delivered by the company Danish Crown GmbH and Tönnies Lebensmittel GmbH & Co. KG and pork fat received from the company Sebastiano Pinzone Geflügel-und Geflügelverabeitungsprodukte.”
Severe restrictions
Russia imposed severe restrictions on the import of meat from Germany in February of this year. The restrictions have banned around 80% of Germany’s usual supply of meat to Russia, and authorities have warned the new violations significantly reduce the probability that the restrictions will be lifted in coming months.
“The German officials are negotiating with us, trying to convince us that their products are safe, and then we find such violations. We have planned inspection of meat-processing companies in Germany in June, which could have led to the lifting of earlier implemented restrictions. However, in the light of this new incident, the probability of this is greatly reduced,” a source in the Rosselkhoznadzor told Globalmeatnews.com.
The source also noted that trade relations with Germany have not improved at all in recent times.
“Some recent actions of German exporters have caused real bewilderment among the heads of Rosselkhoznadzor,” he said.
“In particular, a few weeks ago, 14 German companies have applied for permission to export meat products to Russia, but when our office declared it would hold its inspection in June, three of them immediately cancelled their application, stating that they had “lost interest in supplying meat to Russia. Such actions, to choose my words carefully, seem very strange.”