Dairy giant Valio insist that type of antibiotic is not used in Finland to treat cattle, and call for an independent re-analysis of their lactose-free imports.
Russian food inspectors have released further details about their laboratory tests on Finnish dairy products, as the row intensifies over claims that antibiotics were detected in a batch of goods made by Valio.
Sergei Dankvert, the head of Russia’s food standards agency Rosselkhoznadzor, told the Russian news agency Itar-Tass on Saturday that the drug tetracycline was detected in lactose free products imported from Finland on the 7 of October.
Dankvert was reported as saying that the agency carries out border tests on milk being brought into the country to ensure that it is lactose free. All other western dairy products are currently banned, following an embargo on food imports from the west which was introduced in August this year.
Dankvert said tests for antibiotics take longer to carry out, with results not available until after the imported products are released onto the market.
On Saturday Russia’s food standards agency Rosselkhoznadzor said they had recommended a ban on all Finnish imports of lactose-free dairy products following the test results.
Staunch denial
Valio’s head of communications, Pia Kontunen, issued a strong denial of the claims yesterday, calling the Russian findings “incomprehensible”.
”From our point of view it is not possible for antibiotics to pass into our milk,” Kontunen told Yle. “Cows are treated with antibiotics only in case of illness. There is then a safety period before they are milked, and after that they are tested many times,” she added.
”That type of antibiotic isn’t even used in Finland to treat cattle,” Kontunen insisited.
Independent tests
On Saturday Kontunen also insisted that Russian food standards authorities had not yet informed Valio of the results of the tests, nor of which products were tested and which were alleged to contain antibiotics.
Kontunen says the company is calling on Russian officials to allow an independent laboratory to carry out its own analysis of the Valio products.
She also denied that any Valio products had been allowed onto Russian supermarket shelves since the import embargo was imposed. On October 10 it was reported that border officials allowed a small batch of Valio lactose-free milk across the border, but this had not yet reached shops as tests were being carried out.
Tetracycline is the name given to a wide family of antibiotics, which in the past have been widely used across the world to treat conditions from skin allergies to cholera.
Source: YLE
