The Ministry of Agriculture and Food (MAF) is preparing amendments related to milk imitation products. It is not yet clear how the process will be controlled.
The Bulgarian National Association “Active Consumers” conducted a survey in August on how much water is in the cheese on the market. In their warning to the relevant ministry, they demanded that the products with high water content be declared milk imitation products. According to the expert in „Active Consumers“ Dr. Sergey Ivanov, only one brand of cheese has less than 54 percent water content, it turned out to be non-dairy fat. 10 brands have over 60% and 16 have more than 70% water content.
We remind you that according to the Bulgarian Institute for Standardization (BDS), white brined cheese should have up to 54 percent water content.
The expert Dimitar Zorov from the National Milk Processors Association commented on the air of „bTV“ that the consistency shows which cheese is not real and when pressed it looks like a sponge.
The Ministry of Agriculture and Food commented that for the first time there would be a change related to the dry matter in the cheese. Dr. Dimitar Dimitrov explained:
„One of the big changes is that the dry matter in the cheese will be regulated, not exactly the water, but the dry, the fat content of the dry matter. Until now, only an imitation product was required to appear as such on the packaging. Now, if the new rules come into force, and a product claims to contain cheese – it will say that it has cheese, if it does not and contain an imitation product, it will have to be stated that it contains an imitation product.“
