You're reading: State veterinary service chief: Ukraine to use EU food quality control model

The government of Ukraine has decided to set up a food quality control model based on the EU's, the chief of the Ukrainian State Veterinary and Phytosanitary Service, Ivan Bisiuk, said.

"Following the example of the European Union, the Ukrainian Veterinary and Phytosanitary Service can fully control the quality and safety of food products: from the application of organic and mineral fertilizers in the soil, animal feed and monitoring pesticide and veterinary drug residues in animal products to the processing of vegetable and animal ingredients, reliable supplies to consumers, monitoring logistics and sales throughout the country," Bisiuk was cited as saying by the service.

Food industry reform envisages "the establishment of a unified authorized body based on the State Veterinary and Phytosanitary Service. But this does not mean that only veterinarians should monitor products of vegetable origin or special dietary and baby food. It is with this purpose that specialists from other structures will be hired to the authorized government service," Bisiuk said.

The body will be established on the basis of the State Veterinary and Phytosanitary Service and will include specialists in food hygiene, sanitation, quarantine and plant protection.

Until the established body can fully take on all its functions they will be carried out by specialists from the sanitary-epidemiological service, he said.

The decision has elicited a mixed response from Russian regulatory departments.

Gennady Onishchenko, head of the Russian Federal Consumer Protection Service, said the Russian sanitary service may have to restrict imports of agriculture products from Ukraine. The service may take such a step because of the negative consequences that will result from transferring food product quality control to the veterinary service in Ukraine.

"If we can painfully observe this experiment, which the Ukrainian elite are carrying out with their people, we will not allow this experiment to have an impact on Russians and especially Russian children," he said.

If control over food is transferred to the veterinary service, the local agriculture industry, which exports to Russia, will suffer, Onishchenko said. "We will start to very carefully monitor supplies from Ukraine for the entire agriculture production segment and especially dairy and will take the toughest measures if quality is even slightly affected," he said.