Have you ever wondered why milk and butter from the supermarket sometimes don't taste anything like they do west of Ukraine’s borders?
That’s because 20 percent of the content of each product is not milk or butter, a government inspection discovered recently.
By analyzing a random sample of the most popular foods from supermarket shelves earlier this year, Derzhspozhyvinspektsiya, the state committee for technical regulation and consumer policy, found shocking results.
“None of the products met the quality and standards declared on the labels,” Prime Minister Mykola Azarov said, delivering the results of tests last month. “This is a random and therefore representative snapshot of our food market.”
Ukraine’s food standards are very different – and some would say far inferior – to those in the West. Worse still, there is little or no control over the use of these standards, poor consumer protection legislation and regulations concerning the branding and advertising of low-quality food.
At best, what’s happening is misleading advertising. At worst, low-quality food can make a person sick – or even kill them. Most often, consumers will only notice poor taste if they notice anything at all.
The government’s spot check revealed that 20 percent of fat found in milk was not of dairy origin. Sour cream also had a significant percentage of non-dairy fat, while the actual fat content was 18.5 percent instead of the 21 percent declared on the label.
Derzhspozhyvinspektsiya posted a list of violators on its website. The list included small and medium-size Ukrainian companies as well as food giants and their popular brands, like President by Lactalis, Prostokvashyno by Galakton, several trademarks by Galychyna company and many others.
Under the current law, the retailers who sell inferior products to what is indicated on the label have to pay a fine of 50 percent of a consignment’s selling price.
But retailers usually cover their backs by signing agreements with producers stipulating that they cover losses if there is a problem with their product, according to Anna Andrushchak, acting head of department at the state consumer protection body in Kyiv Oblast.
However, until recently there has been little use for this provision since the government’s testers had no resources assigned in the state budget until this year to conduct food quality tests and fine the violators.
But even regular checks are not enough to change the situation significantly.
Sviatoslav Belei, a lawyer at the Kyiv office of Gide Loyrette Nouel, said actions by consumer protection bodies do not have the potential to affect the whole Ukrainian market.
Paying relatively small fines and individual consumer claims is often a cheaper option for Ukrainian producers than investing in improving product quality and safety. In addition, such individual cases often go unnoticed and do not seriously damage the image of the producer or retailer.
“To protect consumer rights, Ukraine needs to develop a general strategy in order to control the quality of goods on the shelves and introduce proportional sanctions for producers and retailers,” Belei said.
There are several ongoing attempts at doing that. The American Chamber of Commerce is preparing a new law on food standards, in conjunction with specialized lawyers and industry players.
At the same time, the government has announced plans to upgrade consumer protection legislation for state control and regulation of food.
“Improving the legal rights of consumers alone will not be sufficient to improve the quality of the products in Ukrainian market,” Belei added.
Maria Kolesnyk, an analyst with AAA, an agribusiness consultancy, says the biggest problems of quality and standards lie deep within the sector.
“The biggest problem [in the dairy industry] is a lack of quality raw milk,” Kolesnyk explains. “About 80 percent of all raw milk is received from private farmers in the villages where there are no milking machines, proper refrigeration and quantity of bacteria in this milk does not meet any [Western] standards. This is also the main reason why it cannot be exported to European countries,” she said.
The state can do little to limit the sourcing of this milk as this would lead to huge milk shortages and farmers losing a significant part of their income.
The government instead should encourage farmers to keep at least five to 10 cows, improve their facilities, give low interest loans to farmers and improve the investment climate in the industry, the agribusiness analyst said.
Industry insiders remain optimistic.
Vadym Chaharovsky, head of the Union of Dairy Producers, which unites a quarter of the country’s 280 dairy producers, says one should not judge the industry by several producers.
“There is always a black sheep in a flock,” Chaharovsky said. “[But] we also have good and high quality dairy products.”
He said, however, that 30 percent of basic foodstuffs from 150 producers tested by the government turned out to be inferior. He said the government should fight it by improving legislation, adopting international standards and increasing control over products.
In the meantime, while shopping, remember what Prime Minister Azarov said on Nov. 23: “Today the consumer is being fooled 80 percent of the time.”
Kyiv Post staff writer Oksana Faryna can be reached at [email protected].
