On August 31, Minsk /BELTA correspondent/. At one of the enterprises in the Vitebsk region, apple mash was added to fruit wine instead of spirit, reported Veronika Posmetieva, Senior Operative Officer for Particularly Important Cases of the Main Directorate for Combating Economic Crimes of the Ministry of Internal Affairs of Belarus, to a BELTA correspondent. Employees of the Department for Combating Economic Crimes of the Internal Affairs Directorate of the Vitebsk Regional Executive Committee uncovered a violation of the fruit wine production technology at one of the enterprises in the Senno district. According to the requirements of technical normative legal acts in the field of technical regulation and standardization, spirit is added to wine materials during the production of batches of fortified fruit wine of improved quality. However, the enterprise's employees, in violation of technical standards, diluted the wine materials not with spirit, but with fermented-spirit apple juice (mash) of their own production. "Thus, from January 2011 to August 2012, over 100 thousand liters of mash were produced for the production of substandard wine, and another 2 thousand bottles of 0.7-liter "Dryada" wine with a total value of over Br180 million were released," said Veronika Posmetieva. The substandard wine was seized by employees of the Economic Crimes Department, so it did not reach the shelves. The validity of the certificate granting the enterprise the right to sell wine has been suspended until the identified violations are rectified. Operatives are conducting further operational-search activities, in particular, the location of the spirit intended for addition to the wine materials is being established. An administrative protocol has been drawn up against the official who allowed these violations. "According to the legislation, violations of the requirements of technical normative legal acts in the field of technical regulation and standardization, as well as legislation on conformity assessment of these products and spirit, entail the imposition of a fine on officials in the amount of 80 to 100 base units (one base unit is currently Br100 thousand) with the confiscation of products and spirit that do not meet the specified requirements," explained Veronika Posmetieva. -0-

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