“The quality of food and drinks, we are told in the media often. But the quality and security of spirits, unfortunately, said very rare. Could you tell us about who and how determines and confirms the quality of the most popular of them: vodka?” — addressed editorial Aephi Ivan Rudakov from Penza.The words of the speaker of the Federation Council Valentina Matvienko in April just blew up the Internet. “We asked the Association of producers of alcohol, particularly vodka, she said. — Give statistics that increased sales of vodka, but not because the people at the week was to drink more, and in order to be disinfected”.Don’t know whether to use vodka our fellow citizens for the treatment of hands or anything, but the sale of alcohol during the week from 16 to 22 March — has really grown in Moscow — 30%, in Russia — by 8% compared to the same period last year. Moreover, the increased demand was observed mainly on strong and expensive alcohol. However, in April it fell sharply. According to the statistics of fiscal data operator “Taxcom”, from 30 March to 5 April, sales of vodka fell by 41% compared to the first week of last month. Experts explained this by the fact that people are not hit in “drunk” – isolation, and was just afraid of rising prices and stockpile. By the way, the Net indicated that the biggest demand in March used imported drinks — because of fear of possible strong rise in price. This fact and other findings of the analysis of sales, shows another feature of the current Russian buyer: the desire to not drink “anything that burns, and cheaper”, namely high-quality alcohol. It is important that people do not forget the drinks of the highest quality remain dangerous for health if they are abused. “What affects the quality and safety of vodka?” — with this question we addressed to Eugene Popov, the General Director of innovative commercial company “Medmark”. This company has nearly 20 years of experience in the development of standards and methodologies to produce the maximum safe alcoholic beverages. “Vodka, depending on the quality of the alcohol and ingredient composition, differently affect the organism of the consumer, he said. — It is therefore very important that included in the recipe of the drink. The second important point is the strict adherence to the recipe and technology in the future, when industrial production to the end consumer with the best possible quality and safe product. You should pay attention to the fact that it is absolutely safe, there can be neither one alcoholic drink. Speaking about the quality of spirits, you need to understand that one of the main quality criteria of the pI’m exactly the level of security of an alcoholic beverage”. To stimulate the desire of manufacturers to pay due attention not only to the taste characteristics of vodka, but also security issues of the drink, was organized by the international tasting competition vodka, alcohol and alcoholic beverages “EURASIA SPIRITS DRINKS”. The contest was organized by the company “Medmark” and all-Russian research Institute of food biotechnology (vniipbt), which is the main developer of formulations for Russian vodka distillery. “It is perhaps only in the world of professional tasting competition of alcoholic beverages, which in the assessment of samples is used not only the criteria of taste, but the level of toxic and environmental well-being of the drink,” — said Evgeny Popov.Among Russian buyers in the past few years increased demand for products with improved consumer properties, experts say. It is environmentally friendly or organic products. However, this trend is observed not only in us but in all developed countries. People increasingly think in order to use the most qualitative and safe products. “Many manufacturers of alcohol, — has continued the General Director of ICC “Medmark”, — try to match the modern trends and requirements of the buyer. For them, our company together with the Institute of food biotechnology has developed “Standard of pure vodka”, which defines criteria for toxic and environmental well-being alcoholic beverages. The main requirement is the absence in the composition of the alcoholic beverage of compounding ingredients can increase the toxicity of ethanol. The fact that ethyl alcohol is a very difficult matter in all senses of the word. Depending on what we use in the drink, along with ethyl alcohol, the consequences can be very different. So our standards require the manufacturer to have passed a special expert evaluation of the formulation and that formulation was not used synthetic sweeteners, flavorings and other ingredients or combinations of ingredients which are undesirable in the formulation of alcoholic beverages.” If the manufacturer is certified, it receives a certificate of compliance, and the right to place their products conformity mark: a circle with a green leaf and the inscription “NaturAlco”. “This sign is a landmark quality in its broadest sense, — says Evgeny Popov. — If the buyer thinks about minimization of harm to your body with alcohol, then mark can help him when selecting a particular manufacturer and its products.” Such signs usedwill esults worldwide as information for the purchaser that this product is made in accordance with the standards, using higher requirements than those set by the state. Operation conditions in the manufacture of products shall be established by legislation. What I demand from alcohol producers of Russian laws in the field of quality and safety of products? And how do they compare with overseas? To this question General Director of ICC “Medmark” said the following: “With the introduction 021 Technical regulations “On safety of food products” Russian legislation is fully consistent and harmonized with similar EU legislation. Methodological basis are the principles of HACCP (Hazard Analysis and Critical Control Points), which are used throughout the world for over 40 years. In relation to the security of the Russian alcohol products, we can confidently say that over the last 10 years some work has been done for the improvement of technology and the development of new methodologies for the production of maximum safe drinks. But most importantly, these developments are widely used by many distillery (LVZ) on their industries. Now the level of security control products in the Russian distillery on some issues is much more effective than the control at the most famous international industries.” Thanks to the work of Russian scientists, according to Evgeny Popov, a system of control of production of alcoholic beverages, which allows to ensure the safety of the drink at the stage of selection of prescription ingredients. Judging from available information, such decisions are not on any of the well-known foreign manufactures of spirits. This means that Russian scientists are doing everything necessary for the production of high-quality and most safe of alcoholic beverages. However, even proud of our domestic producers, we need to remember that abusing alcohol is still not allowed.
