January 19, 2012

 

 

Weak control over meat in Russia threatens Ukraine and other neighbour states with African swine virus, the Ukrainian State Veterinarian and Phytosanitary Control Service said.

 

"In the opinion of Ukrainian specialists, the current situation is fraught with further spread of the disease in Russia and a threat to animal health in neighbour states," the service's head Ivan Bisyuk said Tuesday (Jan 17).

 

Ukrainian veterinarians are particularly concerned about the absence of a comprehensive food control system in Russia, including safe storage, selling and food waste management.

 

The Ukrainian State Veterinarian and Phytosanitary Control Service, which is under transformation, "will ensure efficient control from the field to the end buyer," Bisyuk said. The country is introducing the EU pattern of food safety and quality control.

 

"Unfortunately, the rate of food poisoning and the amount of inferior food products had gone up lately. So, the enhanced systemic control over foods, from production to selling, was put on the agenda. The Ukrainian government decided to create a food control model by the EU standard," he said.

 

"Following the example of EU member countries, the Ukrainian State Veterinarian and Phytosanitary Control Service will be capable of full control over the quality and safety of foods - starting from soil treatment with organic and mineral fertilisers, animal food, and the concentration of pesticides and veterinarian drugs in cattle products to processing of food of plant and animal origin, its delivery to consumers, logistics and trade outlets," he said.

 

"The food industry reform stipulates the creation of a unified body on the basis of the State Veterinarian and Phytosanitary Control Service," he said. "Not only veterinarians will control food of plant origin, diet food or baby food. The body will be staffed with specialists, who are currently working for other agencies, among them food hygiene, quarantine and plant protection experts," he said.

 

"Until the new body is formed and fully prepared to perform its mission, specialists of the sanitary-epidemiological service, who have been doing their job professionally and scrupulously, will be working," he said.

 

A source at the Ukrainian State Veterinarian and Phytosanitary Control Service said earlier in the day that Ukraine was switching from the Soviet food quality control system to the European one. "This does not mean that veterinarians will control the quality of foods of plant origin or baby food. Specialists from other agencies will be attached to the new service and do that," Bisyuk said.

 

The comment followed a statement by Russian Chief Public Health Official Gennady Onishchenko, who said that the novelty might cause problems in the delivery of Ukrainian food products to Russia.

 

The Federal Veterinarian and Phytosanitary Service also said that the quality of Ukrainian dairy products and cheese had been deteriorating due to the uncontrolled use of vegetable oils. Ukraine said it would seek information about tests, which led to such conclusions.