Dive Brief:

• Danone says it is "deeply insulted" and is demanding that Russia's agriculture minister retract alleged "slanderous" statements he made about it and a unit of PepsiCo.
• At issue are comments earlier this week by Nikolai Fyodorov that Danone and PepsiCo's Wimm-Bill-Dann dairy line were adulterating the milk they sold in Russia with plant oils. Fyodorov reportedly claimed that only 20% of the ingredients in the milk sold in Russia by the two Western companies were from dairy. 
• Danone, which purchased the Russia-based Unimilk company in 2010, and Wimm-Bill-Dann are the largest buyers of raw milk in Russia. 

Dive Insight:

The language used by Danone in its statement is interesting - "outraged," "defamation," "lies," etc. It seems that the company has lost any patience it might have had with Russian anger - much of it aimed at the food industry - in the wake of Western condemnation of Russia's invasion of the Crimea.

PepsiCo, on the other hand, hasn't issued a response yet. On a separate note, that company yesterday announced new leadership roles.