Hiding point: every second catering company avoids food quality checks
Every second new cafe or restaurant in Russia avoids food quality checks without notifying Rospotrebnadzor about the start of its activities. In Moscow, the share of such establishments is 60.1%, in St. Petersburg - 53.3%, in the Krasnodar Territory — 68.2%, and in the Nizhny Novgorod Region — 67.2%. Public activists are asking the authorities to strengthen measures to protect the population, and the State Duma has already announced its readiness to tighten regulation in the field of catering. Business representatives admit that we are talking about small street food outlets, and not about large companies that value their reputation.
Why does the catering industry not want to notify the authorities about the start of work
Almost every second new cafe or restaurant in Russia starts work without notifying Rospotrebnadzor about the start of its activities, and thus effectively avoids food quality control. In Moscow, the share of such establishments is 60.1%, in St. Petersburg - 53.3%, in the Krasnodar Territory — 68.2%, in the Nizhny Novgorod Region — 67.2%, in the Novosibirsk Region — 68.6%, in Tatarstan — 52.7%, in the Rostov region — 67.8%. This conclusion was reached by the organization "Public Consumer Initiative" (OPI), whose analysts conducted a study of the catering market based on big data from official government information systems.
We are talking about comparing information from the unified state register of legal entities and the unified state register of sole proprietors with the unified register of notifications on the commencement of certain types of entrepreneurial activity. The results of the study (available from Izvestia) showed that, having been registered in the first two systems, companies and entrepreneurs are not listed in the latter.
"In accordance with the current legislation, an entrepreneur is required to send a notice of commencement of business. It indicates the actual place of work and confirms that its catering facility meets the established requirements: the premises, equipment and working conditions comply with sanitary standards and regulations, and the employees have passed a medical examination and issued health records," the activists said in their appeal to the State Duma.
At the same time, they emphasize in the document that the procedure for submitting such a notification is simple: the form can be filled out and sent through the Gosuslugi portal without a personal visit to any department. Failure to provide this information, although it entails liability under the Administrative Code, may also indicate insufficient qualifications of the business owner and increased risks to consumer safety, according to the OPI.
Among the violations that such "gray" businessmen can commit, social activists name the production of illegal, substandard and potentially dangerous food products, the involvement of unformed personnel, the non-use of cash registers, tax evasion and others.
— The reason for such large—scale deviations is, first of all, the low level of qualifications of a significant part of entrepreneurs. Therefore, a broad information campaign about the inadmissibility of such practices should be a key element. In addition, it is necessary to improve approaches to sanctions for such violations. Their weight should not only force businesses to refrain from such violations, but ideally make such offenses impossible on a technical level. Therefore, in our appeal, we ask the State Duma to take appropriate measures," Oleg Pavlov, the head of the OPI, told Izvestia.
According to him, the consumer should have the opportunity at any time to find out about the insufficient qualifications of the restaurateur and decide not to visit such an institution. In this regard, social activists, together with the Public Council at Rospotrebnadzor, with the support of this service, launched a pilot project called this radio.The Russian Federation, which will provide an opportunity to check any organization for both ordinary visitors and entrepreneurs who purchase finished products in bulk.
— This resource contains public profiles of entrepreneurs indicating the presence or absence of underlying risks. The data is synchronized with the official state registers and is regularly updated," Oleg Pavlov explained.
At the Eastern Economic Forum, the head of Rospotrebnadzor, Anna Popova, told Izvestia in an interview that a system would appear in Russia where users could get information about cafes and restaurants.
Rospotrebnadzor clarified to Izvestia that notification of the start of business is not just a mandatory requirement, but also an important element characterizing the skill level of cafe and restaurant owners. They noted that the service cooperates with the Public Council and public consumer associations, consistently implements measures aimed at improving the quality and safety of food products and catering services.
The agency also said that they support the development of digital control tools and related information systems and are confident in their relevance.
Since September 21, 2024, Rospotrebnadzor has the right to conduct unscheduled inspections of catering establishments. This decision was made after the mass poisoning of Russians. So, in the summer of 2024, 417 people were poisoned with lobio salad from the Kitchen in the Area delivery service, two of them died. In July, 26 people sought medical help after eating shawarma in a cafe in northern Moscow. In St. Petersburg, more than 30 election commission employees were poisoned by lunch. Poisoning has also been reported in children's camps.
Do I need to increase the punishment for businesses
The lack of notification of the start of operations, as well as a license or registration, are quite serious violations that are still noticeable, said Artem Kiryanov, deputy chairman of the State Duma Committee on Economic Policy and head of the expert council on the de—shadowing (whitewashing) of the economy under the parliamentary committee.
— Due to their massive size, non-standard modern solutions in the spirit of smart regulation are required to curb and prevent them. In this regard, our expert council is developing new approaches to economic and technological sanctions for companies that do not comply with the basic requirements for their activities. Such measures at the technical level will limit the possibility of carrying out illegal activities, but they will not lead to an increase in the administrative burden on businesses," the parliamentarian explained.
According to him, if some entrepreneurs deliberately go into the shadows - they hide their actual place of work, do not use cash registers, purchase raw materials and products of unknown origin, or ignore sanitary requirements, they must be deprived of this opportunity. Among other things, it is necessary to limit the opening of accounts, the conclusion of lease agreements for premises, the placement of information about oneself in cartographic services and any advertising activity, and to prevent registration in food delivery services, he believes.
— At the same time, a conscientious business that complies with mandatory requirements will not even notice such innovations. We are already preparing relevant proposals for legislative amendments as part of a common track to whitewash the economy," said Artyom Kiryanov.
Izvestia sent requests to the largest ready-to-eat delivery services, restaurants and cafes.
Sergey Mironov, chairman of the Coordinating Council of the Federation of Restaurateurs and Hoteliers, founder of the Meat&Fish restaurants, told Izvestia that it was difficult for him to judge the scale of violations of catering enterprises, since he was not familiar with the study.
— But I don't think that large companies commit violations about the failure to provide such a notification. Most likely, we are talking about very small outlets, for example, for the sale of shawarma, which, unlike large businesses, do not value their reputation," the restaurateur believes.
In the modern pace of life, people increasingly prefer ready-made food to home cooking, and this directly affects the scale of business responsibility. In 2025, more than 48% of the service's users ordered ready-made food at least once, and 23% of new customers came for this category for the first time, Galina Petrova, head of sanitary and epidemiological control at the Samokat ready-to-eat food delivery service, told Izvestia.
— Ready-made food goes through several stages before reaching the consumer: production, storage and transportation. They form the main risk factors. Retailers set strict requirements for suppliers of finished products, and also implement additional tools on their side to improve safety at every stage — from entrance control and audits to laboratory tests and temperature monitoring, as well as working with user feedback. It is thanks to a well—established system of interaction with suppliers and transparent processes within the services that risks can be minimized," the business representative emphasized.
According to her, notifying the authorities about the start of activities is one of the basic elements of the control system, which allows identifying risks at an early stage. His absence removes the company from the preventive supervision zone and increases the likelihood of violations. The combination of regulatory requirements, business responsibility, and preventive digital tools is the most effective way to improve the safety of prepared food and protect users, she concluded.
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