The Commission for the Protection of Competition has sanctioned two dairy companies for the presence of cow's milk in sheep's cheese. The fine is over 1 million leva.
The proceedings were initiated after a preliminary investigation by the CPC regarding publications about discrepancies in the content of sheep's cheese in 2023.
The commission specifies that the publications are by the "Association for Affordable and Quality Food" and the Bulgarian National Radio. They state that after the association's inspection "one out of five sheep's cheeses is made only from sheep's milk, the rest are a mixture" - sheep with cow's milk.
The CPC also refers to the Food Agency, which, after a signal, took samples from randomly selected batches from both companies and sent them to a Croatian laboratory, which confirmed the presence of cow's milk in the sheep's cheese. In one of the sheep's cheeses, 63% cow's milk was found, with a possible deviation of 7.55%, and in the cheese of the second company - 7% cow's milk.
The problematic batches of cheese have been withdrawn from the market. Both companies dispute the claims of the Food Agency and the Association for Affordable and Quality Food that cow's milk was found in the sheep's cheese.
In its decision, the CPC accepted that the violations by the two dairies were short-lived and minor, but "given the characteristics of the products, the adverse consequences could lead to a significant negative effect on competition."
Therefore, the commission imposed fines of 0.3 and 0.1% of the companies' turnover, respectively. The decision is subject to appeal before the Supreme Administrative Court within 14 days.