The Russian food safety and veterinary authority, Rosselkhoznador said that over a 10 month period it has recorded an increasing number of incidents where pork from Canada had tested positive for a number of contaminants including ractopamine.

Rosselkhoznador said that on each occasion it had notified the Canadian authorities of the breech of food safety regulations.

But it added that despite intense negotiations about developing measures to prevent contaminated meat coming on to the market in Russia, the Canadian meat sector and veterinary authorities had failed to meet the guaranteed performance standards and food safety requirements.

The Russian authorities have started to impose temporary restrictions on the import of pig meat products from Canada from 14 November.

This week telephone talks also took place between Rosselkhoznador and the US authorities over food safety measures in US poultry plants.

The Russian food safety authorities are concerned that the US has not informed them about changes to the safety and inspection measures that could affect the safety of US poultry products.

Rosselkhoznador said that negotiations between the two sides re continuing.