MOSCOW, September 10 (RIA Novosti) – Russia’s consumer watchdog Rospotrebnadzor has filed 80 administrative cases after inspecting McDonald’s restaurants, finding that 17 percent of the 200 food samples do not meet the standards, the newspaper Izvestiya reported Wednesday.
"Having inspected McDonald’s fast food restaurants, the Federal Service for Supervision of Consumer Rights Protection and Human Welfare (Rospotrebnadzor) has opened cases of administrative responsibility in relation to 80 legal and public officials and individuals. A study of 228 samples of food products has revealed that 17 percent of them did not meet the regulatory requirements, of which 6.5 percent were considered such in terms of safety," the newspaper wrote, citing the report of the watchdog.
Director of Public Relations at McDonald's Russia, Svetlana Polyakova said that all the raw materials and produced frozen foods are checked for compliance with the Russian Federation and internal company standards, including microbiological standards.
"To control the quality and safety of the product, we have always used independent laboratories. The test results of our samples always point to the safety of the product. For now, it is important for us to receive a complete picture of the results of analyzes from Rospotrebnadzor, to understand the reason for the discrepancies in the results," Polyakova was quoted as saying.
In late August, Rospotrebnadzor launched sanitation checks on the fast-food chain in 18 regions throughout central Russia. As of today, the inspections resulted in temporary closure of 8 fast food restaurants in Moscow, Moscow region, Sochi, Yekaterinburg and Volgograd
In total, McDonald’s has more than 430 restaurants in 75 Russian regions.
The McDonald’s corporation, founded in 1940, is the world’s largest hamburger fast-food chain. International health and consumer groups have criticized the company for its menu and business practices.
