On 7 December 2021, the online “trainings-on-the-job” dedicated to data analysis and presentation in the frame of the Raw Milk Control Program was held for the specialists of the State Service of Ukraine on Food Safety and Consumer Protection (hereinafter – SSUFSCP). This event was organized with the support of Switzerland in the frame of the Swiss-Ukrainian program “Higher Value Added Trade from Organic and Dairy Sector in Ukraine” (hereinafter – QFTP) implemented by the Research Institute of Organic Agriculture (FiBL, Switzerland) in partnership with SAFOSO AG (Switzerland).

The aim of the training was to discuss and agree on the general concept and content of the SSUFSCP public report on the national data and results of state raw milk control. Overall, over 80 participants registered for the event.

Anatolii Vovniuk, Deputy Head of the SSUFSCP in Digital Development, Digital Transformation, and Digitalization welcomed the participants:

“This is one of the few digitalization projects which has not only been developed but yielded the results that we are going to discuss today. This success has become possible, firstly, thanks to the efforts of the Swiss-Ukrainian program “Higher Value Added Trade from Organic and Dairy Sector in Ukraine” and, secondly, because there was a need for it. Having worked in the SSUFSCP for a year, I understand that our producers want to export milk and dairy products to the EU. Our children want to drink quality and safe milk. The SSUFSCP wants to impose fewer fines for poor quality products, and producers want to take less effort to control the quality of raw materials. These factors contributed to the creation of the Dairy Module and its further development, as we are planning its further integration. In my opinion, in terms of public reporting, the map of Ukraine with milk quality indicators would be a good competitive argument for the dairy sector development”.

In his speech, Marco De Nardi, Senior International Expert of Quality FOOD Trade Program, noted: “Today’s event aims to discuss, collect thoughts and agree on the information which has to be included into the national report on raw milk quality and safety in Ukraine. We expect to get the feedback on the most important data which have to be included and disclosed in the national report”.

Iryna Vysotska, QFTP Dairy Sector Component Coordinator, spoke in details about examples of Austria, Germany, and Switzerland in her presentation about European practices of reporting on food safety. Marco De Nardi complemented the presentation with the approaches to the region-level data analysis with regard to parameters and criteria of raw milk in Italy. The presentation is available in Ukrainian at the link.

The training proceeded in the online poll format with the purpose of setting priorities of the most relevant data with further discussion.

Based on the training results a report with recommendations for the SSUFSCP as for the general concept and content of the public report will be prepared, as well as the proposals related to improving the Dairy Module functions in the part of statistical analysis, in particular, for the purpose of reporting.

The full video recording of the event is available at the link.