Business daily Vedomosti quoted the head of consumer protection watchdog Rospotrebnadzor, Gennady Onishchenko, as saying that frozen meat would not be used to produce baby food, some diet foodstuffs and delicacies.
Earlier this month Onishchenko told Reuters that Russia will ban sales and processing of deep-frozen poultry meat from Jan. 1, both domestic and imported.
Komsomolskaya Pravda daily suggested that Onishchenko had changed his mind following talks with meat suppliers from the European Union, which took place in Moscow last week.
Russia, which is a major market for poultry meat from the United States, Brazil and the European Union, has said it plans to stop importing it within three years.
Russia's poultry meat imports declined 73.5 percent in volume terms to 169,800 tonnes in the first seven months of this year. Their value fell 51 percent to $248.4 million.
Russia banned imports from top supplier the United States from January, but shipments have recently restarted. (Reuters)
