Commodity expertise is a products research with the purpose of determining their quality and their compliance with existing standards.The examination is conducted bothat the buyerinitiative and at the request of manufacturer or seller who wants to make sure in appropriate product quality.Such studies are prescribed in the course of criminal investigations and proceedings, connected with theft, counterfeit goods and other crimes.Most of these offenses are made with the use of hidden methods that canonlybe detected during a special study of the productproperties. During forensic commodity examination the following circumstances are determined:

Deliberate change of fixed in the accompanying documentation information, containing facts about the quality and quantity of manufactured goods; Distortion of labeling methods and product labelinformation; Deliberate change of product output, spoiled in a result of noncompliance with transportation or storage conditions; Breach of sorting goods procedure, product acceptance criteria, tests.

Except forviolations made during the production of goods and evaluation of products quality, the commodity expertise establishes a presence of substances harmful to human health or the environment.This is especially important for children and medical products.A large number of commodity expertisesare held in the consideration of cases violated by the civil suits, related to the propertyseparation,compensation for loss or damage to a property, sale of low-quality goods etc.

Subject and object of commodity expertise

Commodity examination is conducted by the competent judicial experts with a certificate of the Ministry of Justice of Ukraine, which have the necessary knowledge in the sphere of product characteristics.The subject of research is determined in each individual case depending on the purpose of an expertise.Usually, the subject of commodity expertise concerns identification of the product by a classification, its condition at the time of the examination and determination of the causes or circumstances of changes in the state and/or product characteristics.The commodity expert should have the necessary level of competence when providing with an expert conclusion.

The object of commodity expertise is a unit of food or non-food productand also any material object that contain information about the origin of commodity:accompanying documentation, technical descriptions and recommendations for use, storage and movement of products.It should be mentioned that if a material object has not specific characteristics,indicating its commodity nature, it cannot be regarded as an object of relevant expertise.For example, in case if the product has lost its structural characteristics because of fire, water or chemicals, the implementation of commodity expertise is not possible.

The order of carrying out a commodity expertise includes the following steps:

Determining the subject of research and formulating research questions. A thorough study of all the documents relating to the object of an examination. Analysis of the object of study, including visual inspection of the product andcarrying out specific evaluation activities. Making an expert conclusion in writing form, signed by a forensic expert who conducted the commodity expertise.

Tasks to be solved in the procedure for conducting an expertise analysis:

Identification of theobject of a commodity expertise –determining if specific product or a certain number of product units are of the same type (brand, model, variety or species). Determination of conformity of aproduct quality according to the normative documents (GOST, National standard etc.), quality certificates or the benchmark samples. Determination of a product quality changes, occurred as a result of damage of the object, the presence of defects and their reflection on the quality of products. Determination of conformity of characteristics, mentioned in the product information that is fixed on the product packaging (label, tag and on the product itself).The list of product characteristics includes: productcomposition, used at the manufacturing of raw and other materials, data on the size of a product, technical parameters etc. Determination of the correct calculation of productionlosses. Determination of conformity ofproduct packaging methods and means according to the normative documents. Determination of conformity ofmethods, terms and conditions of goods carriage according to the normative documents.

8.Determination of conformity ofconditions of the commodity exploitation to the information indicated in the accompanying documents.

9.Analysis of changes in product quality as a result of an impact of certain factors.

10.Determination of the market value of goods and changes in value due to a violation of its actual condition.

11.Determination of violations made during the preparation of accompanying documentation that led to the failure to comply with the consumer rights.

12.Establishment ofviolationfacts of economic activities of the organization that led to the production and sale of goods of inadequate quality.

The list of questions, which can be resolved with the help of Commodityexpertise, is as follows:

1) Does the product quality meet the requirements of information specified on the packaging or in accompanying documents?

2)Does the actual quantity of goods coincide with theinformationindicated on the packaging?

3)What are the actual characteristics of the goods?

4) Do the actual characteristics of the goodscoincide with themarking on the label or packaging?

5)What are the differences between characteristics of the goods and indicators on the packaging or in the accompanying documentation?

6)Does the quality of the investigated objectmeet the requirements ofstandards developed for this group of products?

7) How the product quality deviationis marked?

8)Is the realization of the investigated product is permissible? Can it berecycled or disposed of?

9)Does the packaging of the investigated objectmeet the requirements ofquality standards?

10)Couldthe storage conditions affect the changes inqualityof the investigated object?

11) Whatproduct acceptance criteria could be violated?

12)Does the investigated object have defects?

13)What are the reasons for the appearance of defects?

14)Do the defects have a manufacturing origin?

15)Doesthe method of calculation of productionlossescorrectlychosen, taking into account the actual conditions of transportation and storage of goods?

16)What is the residual value of a damaged product?

17)What is the cost of the investigated object consideringdeterioration immediately before the influence of fire, waterand other on it?

18)How the quality and price of goods, damaged in a result offlooding, fires, pollution by chemicals,decreased?