On October 20, Russia imposed a temporary ban on deliveries of canned fish produced by two factories in Latvia, Brivais Vilnis and Gamma-A, due to high levels of benzopyrene, a carcinogenic substance allegedly detected in imported canned sprats.
"We have agreed to establish an expert group to include the two countries' veterinary representatives, processing industry and medical officials," Latvia's food and veterinary service head Vinets Veldre said.
After consultations with Russia's Federal Consumer Rights Protection and Human Health Control Service in Moscow Tuesday, Veldre said it will take the group one or two months to implement its mandate, and that Latvia will ask Russia for a grace period so that exports can continue.
The two companies, which account for 30% of the Russian canned fish market, said in October that benzopyrene, found by experts from Russia's Federal Service for Veterinary and Phytosanitary Oversight, is an inevitable result of the industrial process of frying and smoking fish, and that Russia's standards for the substance are tougher than in the European Union.
According to Russian regulations, a maximum of one milligram of benzopyrene is allowed per kilogram of food products, whereas the EU norm is five milligrams per kilogram.
Speaking about the group's possible solution to the discrepancy, Veldre said: "This can be the Russian, or European, or any other standard. But the five-milligram norm can keep the product the same as we are accustomed to, otherwise it will look pale, almost transparent and inedible," he said.
The official said he has applied to Brussels for justification of their standard. "[Anyway], it is not a question of being a health hazard, as a pack of cigarettes contains as much benzopyrene as four kilograms of sprats do," he added.
Following the ban, Moscow's major supermarket networks were ordered to stop sales of Latvian sprats. The sale of canned sprats was also banned in Kaliningrad, which is currently building its own plant to produce the fish.
Restrictions imposed by Russian authorities on food imports, including United States poultry, Moldovan and Georgian wines, and Ukrainian meat, have been a source of tension in bilateral relations with those countries.
Latvia has had uneasy relations with Russia following the collapse of the Soviet Union, particularly over the non-citizen status of ethnic Russians living in the Baltic country, but Veldre denied any relation of the restrictions imposed by Russia to politics.
"I doubt the move is politically motivated," he said, adding that inspections and interruption in sales aimed to minimize possible risks. "I would do the same if I were them [Russia]," Veldre said.
