Retailers may be eligible for simplified sales of labeled dairy products

Until June 1, 2024, they want to allow retailers, when selling dairy products, to transfer to the Honest Sign system only data on the product code and its expiration date, but without reading it. On December 22, amendments to the rules for labeling dairy products were posted on regulation.gov by the Ministry of Industry and Trade. The relaxation will be applied if the code does not work at the checkout.

According to this scheme, no more than 2% of the monthly turnover of dairy products should be sold. A spokesman for the ministry said the project was developed following requests from “industry associations,” without revealing their names.

Trading networks and other retailers are required to read Chestny Znak marking codes when selling dairy products to the end consumer from September 1 this year. The Center for the Development of Advanced Technologies (CRPT, the operator of the Chestny Znak system) receives information not only about the type of product and expiration date, but also about the delivery batch, raw materials, composition, veterinary accompanying documents, production date, etc.

Now about 2% of dairy product codes are not read at the checkouts, says Lubomir Panov, director of GR at Soyuzmoloko. According to him, this share has not changed in any way since the voluntary code scanning program, which has been running since 2021, despite the efforts of dairy producers to improve technical solutions. Such products, according to the requirements of mandatory labeling, cannot be sold. According to Panov’s estimates, the loss of 2% of production for the industry is equivalent to 40 billion rubles. To avoid them, Soyuzmoloko back in July 2022 proposed to allow the sale of such products with unreadable codes, but on the condition that a limit on its volume would be established.

An interlocutor in one of the manufacturers of dairy products says that at the moment the networks are not fined for selling goods without reading the code. But from next year, a source in one of the networks knows, unofficial indulgences will cease to operate and retailers will refuse to sell goods with labeling defects. The changes proposed by the Ministry of Industry and Trade will solve this problem, Panov added.

Chains are already periodically returning batches of goods with labeling defects, since the obligation to supply products without violations in the codes is already laid down in contracts with counterparties, says an employee of one of the dairy plants. The easing will allow chains to avoid fines that have already arisen during their own storage and transportation, or for those that they missed on acceptance.

It is impossible to check all signs for readability when accepting batches, so selective scanning takes place, says a Vedomosti source in another retail chain. If a defect is found, the specific item will not be accepted. But if it enters the network and then is not read at the checkout, then the losses fall on retailers. More than 10% of units of goods are not read, but not always it is a code defect: the cashiers themselves forget to read the marking code separately. But, according to him, even taking into account the human factor, the volume of unreadable characters exceeds 2%, the source of Vedomosti assures.

Some dairy market players were preparing for marking at the last moment, so the quality of coding does not always meet the requirements, said a representative of the CRPT. He added that information on the sale of such products will enter the system after the adoption of the amendments and the system operator will understand the causes of errors. The Retail Association added that manufacturers will be able to fix the problem.