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Russia bans Gerber baby food from US

By IANS/RIA Novosti,

Moscow : Russia has banned baby food containing poultry components produced by an Amercian company after the country passed new safety regulations, a top official has said.

Consumer rights watchdog Rospotrebnadzor banned the Gerber Products company, one of US’ largest producers of baby food, from importing four kinds of its poultry products to Russia, the country’s chief sanitary doctor Gennady Onishchenko said.

Russia’s new regulations impose strict limitation on the amount of chlorine in the solution used for processing of poultry meat.

“Suppliers as the Gerber Products company… did not change their technologies and ingredients despite the restrictions on processing of poultry meat and products made of it with chlorine, which had been introduced on Jan 1,” Gennady Onishchenko said.

Russia’s new requirements, which apply to both imports and meat processed in Russia, says the amount of chlorine in the solution used for processing of poultry meat should not exceed the level set for drinking water – 0.3-0.5 mg per litre.

Gerber Products is part of the Nestle company, with an annual turnover exceeding $1 billion.

Earlier, Rospotrebnadzor had banned the Finnish branch of the Nestle company from importing some of its baby food products to Russia.