On November 22, 2021, the heads of research institutions of the National Academy of Agrarian Sciences and veterinary higher education institutions met with the Head of the State Service of Ukraine for Food Safety and Consumer Protection Vladyslava Magaletska. The event was also attended by Borys Antunovich, Head of the EU project "Improving Legislation, Control and Awareness in the Field of Food Safety, Animal Health and Welfare in Ukraine". The NAAS was represented by Borys Stegniy, Director of the NSC "Institute of Experimental and Clinical Veterinary Medicine" and Serhii Nychyk, Director of the Institute of Veterinary Medicine of the NAAS.
In her opening speech, Vladyslava Magaletska stressed the importance of involving independent expert scientists in Ukraine to assess the risks related to product safety and health assessment of productive animals. It is urgent to harmonize Ukraine's standards with European requirements to increase the export potential of the livestock industry in the country. To achieve this goal, it is planned to intensify cooperation with specialized scientific institutions and to make greater use of modern domestic innovative scientific developments.
In his speech, Academician Borys Stegniy conveyed greetings from the President of the National Academy of Agrarian Sciences of Ukraine, Academician Yaroslav Hadzalo, to the meeting participants. He emphasized the importance of continuous interaction and cooperation between veterinary scientists and the State Service of Ukraine for Food Safety and Consumer Protection. This includes supporting scientific projects in competitions held by the National Research Foundation and the Ministry of Education and Science of Ukraine. He proposed establishing national reference laboratories in Ukraine's veterinary research institutions of the National Academy of Sciences of Ukraine. These laboratories would have the prospect of becoming reference laboratories of the EU, FAO and the World Organization for Animal Health.
A strong foundation to start such activities is the signing of Memorandums of Cooperation between the State Service of Ukraine for Food Safety and Consumer Protection and such NAAS institutions as the National Scientific Center "Institute of Experimental and Clinical Veterinary Medicine" and the Institute of Veterinary Medicine of NAAS, as well as several leading higher education institutions, including the National University of Life and Environmental Sciences of Ukraine; Odesa and Sumy State Agrarian Universities; Lviv National Stepan Gzhytsky University of Veterinary Medicine and Biotechnology.
The Memorandum provides for the creation of a network of scientific institutions and the involvement of the best scientific experts to conduct an independent and objective risk assessment in the field of food safety. This will facilitate international recognition of solutions and expand new markets for Ukrainian agricultural products.
It should be noted that the Memorandums with scientific institutions were developed with the participation of experts from the EU Project "Improving Legislation, Control, and Awareness of Food Safety, Animal Health and Welfare in Ukraine" (EU4SaferFood).
