Belarus bans Greenfield buckwheat and cocoa drink over safety findings

Belarus has banned imports and sales of Greenfield Buckwheat & Cocoabeans from October 10 after the state standards authority reported microbiological safety violations in the buckwheat and cocoa-bean drink.

The authority said mould levels in the tested product were 70 times the permitted limit. Inspectors also detected coliform bacteria, whose presence in the drink is prohibited under the Customs Union’s food safety technical regulation.

The listed manufacturer is Russia’s Orimi, based in the Vsevolozhsk district of the Leningrad region. Alfa-Distribution supplies the product to Belarus. The restriction concerns the named drink rather than the entire Greenfield range.

The regulator also ordered the product’s withdrawal from circulation and the termination of its conformity assessment documents. RBC said it had asked Rospotrebnadzor and Orimi Trade for comment. Responses were not included in the report.

RBC separately mentioned Russian restrictions on drinks from certain Georgian producers. Those concern a different decision and are not the basis for the Belarusian restriction on Greenfield.