Ukraine's Foreign Minister Kostiantyn Hryschenko wants Russia's chief sanitary official Gennady Onishchenko to apologize for his remarks about the quality of Ukrainian agricultural produce.
"Onishchenko’s statement on Ukraine has a broad resonance. I wonder why he was so vexed by the European quality control standards we are introducing," Hryschenko wrote on his Twitter page on Tuesday morning.
"Anyway, the best he could do is apologize for his remarks," he added a few minutes later.
Onishchenko earlier said that the Russian sanitary service would probably have to limit imports of Ukrainian agricultural produce over the negative effects of the decision to put the Ukrainian veterinary service in charge of controlling foods.
"A serious problem has emerged. Judging by accessible official documents, the veterinary service rather than medical professionals will be charged with cholera prevention, which means that we will have to tighten oversight on the border with Ukraine from May," Onishchenko said.
"The Ukrainian veterinary service has been made responsible for exercising control over food and nutrition, including at children’s establishments. De facto, this is tantamount to saying that Ukrainian citizens are animals. Meanwhile, in Ukraine and elsewhere in the world people with specialized medical education are responsible for citizens’ health. Food, as we know, breeds 70% of health problems," Onishchenko said.
The chief of Ukraine’s State Veterinary and Biosecurity Service Ivan Bisiuk said in turn that an increasing incidence of food poisonings and an expanding turnover of substandard products has made the Ukrainian government switch to a pattern of food control common in the European Union.
