On opening the meeting, the Committee Chairman Hryhoriy Kaletnik noted that, according to the Constitution of Ukraine, preservation of health of current and future generations should be the priority task for the social-economic state policy. According to him, in majority of developed countries the issue of quality food supply in schools and kindergartens is the issue of national security of the state.
According to H.Kaletnik, Ukraine has enough possibilities to produce healthy food for children. “It is necessary to make sure that children of all ages at home, in kindergarten and at school could consume quality food,” he stressed.
It was also noted that today the government only supports program on development of environmentally friendly milk for infant food, production of other raw material for infant food is not conducted. In addition, it was noted during the discussion that the Sate Social Program of Infant Food Production Development for 2012-2016 defines strategic national priorities only in the field of food supply of infant and young children; the program of providing dairy products for children older than 3 years and schoolchildren is absent.
Among the reasons negatively affecting the level of production of infant food by domestic producers, participants identified: high price of the final products, which were formed due to high purchase prices for clean milk; low purchasing power of the population; high proportion of imports; lack of government regulation of subsidies on raw materials; strict regulation of profitability and trade mark-ups, etc.
Following the discussion, participants made a number of recommendations, including, inter alia:
to the Government – to provide funding for the implementation of measures of the National program for the development of infant food for 2012-2016;
to the Ministry of Agrarian Policy and Food Supply – to resume payment of subsidies for clean milk for infant food.
The relevant executive authorities are recommended to: develop national program "School Milk", to determine how to inform children and parents about rational norms of nutrition of children of all ages and to include recommendations for nutrition to the program of the school course "Fundamentals of Care".