Bill №3516 “On Amendments to Certain Legislative Acts of Ukraine Concerning Food Products Imitating Milk and Dairy Products ” aims to oblige to label dairy products that do not consist of 100% milk and to place them separately from “milk and dairy products ” on store shelves.
The Association of Milk Producers (AMP) and the Ukrainian Agri Council (UAC) have been emphasizing the need to introduce similar norms distinguishing between dairy and imitation products since 2012, so they initiated this bill. Specialists of the UAC "Smart Country" UAC think tank and AMP joined its development.
Hanna Lavreniuk, Vice President of the Association of Milk Producers, notes that the practice of dividing milk products into dairy products and those in which milk components are replaced by analogues is becoming more widespread among countries around the world. The goal is to provide comprehensive and reliable information to consumers, to ensure fair market conditions, to create mechanisms for effective fight against counterfeiters. Thus, in Bulgaria, the term "imitation products" is used to denote milk products or their components with partial replacement of fat or protein by analogues, in Poland - "analogues", and, for example, in the countries of the Eurasian Economic Union - "milk product from replacement of milk fat (or protein) made by kefir technology (cheese, sour cream, butter, etc.) ".
Oleh Tarasov, a People's Deputy, presented Bill 163516 to the Verkhovna Rada Committee on Agrarian and Land Policy. December 2, the committee considered it and recommended that the parliament adopt it in the first reading.
"Therefore, the initiative is very relevant and important for the Ukrainian dairy industry, so AMP supports the decision of the Agrarian Committee to recommend the Government to adopt ROM 3516 in the first reading," said Hanna Lavreniuk.
Bill №3516 prohibits the use of fats and proteins of non-dairy origin in the production of dairy products. And also - change of requirements to marking and realization of dairy and non-dairy products and responsibility for violation of these requirements. In particular, on the wrappers of all products that do not consist of 100% milk, the manufacturer must place the inscription:"Imitation product. Contains substitutes for milk components. In addition, the use of:
the words "milk" and any derivatives thereof;
names of dairy products and animals (cows, sheep, goats, buffaloes, mares);
images of milk, dairy products.
The store, in turn, should separately place on the shelf dairy products and those that mimic milk and dairy products.
Failure to comply with these requirements is subject to a fine. A producer who claims to be a dairy product that contains a certain percentage of milk or no milk at all will face a fine of 100% of the value of such products. For example, if the value of a batch that does not meet the standards of labeling is 1 million hryvnias, the manufacturer will be fined the same amount.
The store will have to pay a fine of 5 to 8 minimum wages for violating the rules on product placement. Today it is from UAH 23,615 to UAH 37,784.
"The fact is that today it is almost impossible to prosecute unscrupulous dairy producers. Currently, liability is assumed if the product has caused harm to human life or health, which in turn is difficult to establish and prove. A clear example is the resonant fact that the Antimonopoly Committee imposed fines on five large oil producers in early November totaling more than 30 million hryvnias. Thus, the State Food and Consumer Service found the presence of vegetable fats in butter. But it is impossible to be held responsible for this alone, because vegetable fat itself is not dangerous to life and health. Therefore, the information was passed to the Antimonopoly Committee, which imposed a fine in accordance with the law on unfair competition. With the adoption of the bill №3516, everything will be forgiven: if dairy products do not consist of 100% milk and are not labeled accordingly - a fine. In this way, we will be able to "whiten" the Ukrainian dairy market, "explains Andriy Mastylo, the expert of the analytical center of Ukrainian Agri Council.
After the adoption of the bill, the so-called dairy and cheese products should disappear from store shelves, and only dairy and imitation products should remain. Thus, the consumer will be able to consciously decide which one to choose.