Experts found out that Biberland’s Gouda, EmSyry and Brasovskie Syry are pure counterfeit
A laboratory test of Gouda cheeses from Russian stores indicates that manufacturers do not hesitate to offer counterfeit products under the guise of a quality product.
“Gouda” is one of the most popular cheeses in the world, the appearance of which is associated with Holland. The original Gouda is a hard cheese with few holes. According to the color shade, options are possible – the cheese can be yellow, and even caramel. However, in any case, the product must be of high quality and safe.
On the shelves of stores you can find many options for “Gouda”. But how honest are manufacturers with buyers? And aren’t they trying to make the process of making cheeses cheaper at the expense of the product?
The journalists of the NashPotrebNadzor program, together with employees of Roskachestvo, decided to find out how high-quality and safe Gouda cheese is sold in Russian stores.
For this purpose, samples of the product from seven brands were purchased in regular supermarkets: EmSyry, Brasovskie Syry, Lenta, Biberland, Syrobogatov, Vamin and Ichalki.
While without GOST
Despite the high popularity of Gouda, there is still no GOST regulating its composition. The rules are currently under development. However, manufacturers should not perceive this fact as permissiveness and add oils of vegetable origin. Indeed, in this case, the manufactured product cannot even be called cheese – this is prohibited at the legislative level.
As Roskachestvo expert Natalya Zavyalova explained, if vegetable fats are present in the product, we are talking about a fake that cannot be sold. Or the manufacturer must honestly write on the packaging that he offers not cheese, but a cheese product.
However, this requirement, apparently, was decided to be ignored by the manufacturers of the three studied Gouda samples at once. Cheeses of the EmSyry, Brasovskie Syry and Biberland brands contain vegetable fats, while the label does not contain such information.
Fat instead of protein
A laboratory test for the presence of protein in cheese indicates that in these three samples it is extremely small, while fat, on the contrary, is in excess.
As Natalya Zavyalova noted, in this scenario, one could talk about low-quality raw materials used for production, but these cheeses do not contain protein due to the replacement of ingredients with vegetable fats.
At the same time, the experts stated that the evidence of counterfeit, in fact, does not even require laboratory testing, low-quality cheeses can be identified by eye, carefully examined from the section. For example, “Gouda” from the brand “EmSyry” turned out to be disgustingly farinaceous, and the product of the Brasovskie Syry brand, on the contrary, is slimy and even viscous, and the cheese from Biberland completely exfoliates.
Having carefully examined the Vamin cheese, you can notice the complete absence of cheese eyes in it. However, there is no reason to consider this as some kind of violation, apparently, the product is made using its own recipe. However, buyers should be aware that in this case we are not talking about the classic “Gouda”.
Still safe
What pleased me was the verification of selected samples for the presence of dangerous bacteria. Studies have shown that none of the seven cheeses contain either salmonella and listeria, or Escherichia coli and Staphylococcus aureus. This indicates the safety of the selected cheeses.
According to the results of the audit, reporters from the NashPotrebNadzor program on the NTV channel do not recommend buying Gouda cheese from the EmSyry, Brasovskie Syry and Biberland brands, arguing that there is no question of cheese in this case.