Legislative base for the meat products adulteration countering: World practice

Abstract

The problem of unauthorized meat impurities (missing in labeling) in meat products, often without proper permission from veterinary and sanitary control authorities, is increasing because of the international food trade intensification, supply chain complication, and extension for several countries and continents. Therefore, definitions and actions on adulterated meat products harmonization and regulation at the national level is needed. The European Union, United States and Russian Federation legal acts regulated the "adulterated products" definition, and the control and counteraction system are discussed in this article. The insufficient control because of system reform, economic benefits of companies (low level of financial responsibility for the falsified raw materials using compared to profit), the systematic control disregard, and only consumer health risk in order the trade restriction are the main reasons for the meat products adulteration in the European Union. The activity against meat products adulteration on the EU, specifically the current laboratory methods using (real-time PCR as a confirmation method) and unfair manufacturers fines tighten (effective and proportional penalties), have proved effective. In the Russian Federation adulterated products is strictly regulated, however it is necessary to introduce the impurities quantitative characteristics in meat products using international experience adulteration countering to control and prevent its realization.