Blocking the sale of illegal tobacco at the cash registers of stores will begin on April 1, and expired dairy products - from May 1, 2024. This follows from the draft government decree, which was reviewed by Rossiyskaya Gazeta.
The document provides for the phased introduction of bans on the sale of illegal and expired goods in four groups: tobacco products, dairy products, packaged water and beer. All these products are now marked with the "Honest Sign" system.
In addition to the deadlines, the document specifies specific cases in which the sale of illegal goods will be blocked. In addition to the delay, we are talking about illegal trafficking - the lack of necessary information about the product in the system or its distortion, double sale or attempts to sell prohibited goods.
So, starting from April 1, 2024, it is planned to start blocking the sale of illegal tobacco products. From the same date, the ban will affect beer in kegs, and from November 1, 2024 - in consumer packaging. Then they will block the sale of illegal and expired dairy products, water. At the same time, first, from May 1, the mechanism will be introduced in large retail chains (with more than fifty stores), and from September 1 - in all others.
As explained by the "RG" in the Ministry of Industry and Trade, thanks to information from the labeling system, retail stores will be able to quickly receive the necessary information about the product and if there are reasons to ban the turnover of a specific unit of products, do not allow its sale to the consumer, for example, if the shelf life of the product has expired.
At the time of scanning the goods at the checkout, the software of the cash register node accesses the labeling system to obtain information about this unit of goods. If a response from the labeling system is not received in one and a half seconds, the store checks the products offline according to its database, which is updated at least once every two hours.
"The participants of the turnover, who now use cash register equipment designed to work with marked goods, are already equipped with all the necessary equipment for the mechanism of control of the sale of products. You will only need to finalize the software of the cash register node. Appropriate solutions from software suppliers are already available on the market," the Ministry of Industry and Trade assured.
The new mechanism will automatically prevent the very possibility of buying expired or illegal goods in the store, goods in violation of the price set by the state. Such a product simply will not break through the cash register, explained the Center for the Development of Advanced Technologies (CRPT, the operator of the "Honest Sign" marking system). In particular, this will exclude the human factor: for example, when the pharmacist did not have time to check the expiration dates on all dairy products placed on the shelf. At the same time, the innovation will not require additional costs. You will only need to update the software that works with the cash register.
The authorities proposed to introduce mandatory blocking of sales of illegal products based on the results of an experiment that was conducted from February 1 to August 1, 2023.
According to the CRPT, during this experiment, sales of expired labeled products in the country decreased by 25% - from more than 10 million units to 7.5 million units.
The new mechanism will be able to automatically stop the possibility of selling illegal or expired products - the cash register simply will not break through it
The Association of Retail Trade Companies (ACORT) found it difficult to assess the effectiveness of this mechanism, since federal retail chains are only implementing this project. During the public discussion of the draft resolution, ACORT had a number of comments. In particular, the association feared that the new mechanism could create artificial restrictions on the turnover of goods, primarily socially significant. Therefore, it needs to be carefully worked out and take into account all the nuances before implementing it. For example, according to ACORT, situations often arise with dairy products for which a report on putting into circulation has not been submitted or registered in the Honest Sign system, and taking into account the short delivery and sale times, the application of such a criterion will not allow for the timely sale of short-term goods. In dairy products and packaged water, errors persist in submitting data to the system about the expiration date: in dairy products it is about 1% of goods, and in packaged water it is about 5%. There are still mistakes by manufacturers in applying marking codes, because of which a large volume of goods will not be able to be sold.
Roskachestvo's research shows that there are still "hand-drawn" protocols and certificates on the market that are issued for falsification or counterfeit, Dmitry Leonov, Deputy Chairman of the Board of the Rusprodsoyuz Association, draws attention. "In order to effectively combat them, the suspension of sales of products should occur after the cancellation of the certificate or declaration by Rosaccreditation. Then manufacturers and importers will start using the services of laboratories and accredited certification bodies," he believes.
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