- Is there a place for organic products in the Ukrainian school nutrition system?
- Supply of products for educational institutions: experience of Ukrainian organic producers.
- Organic nutrition in schools: experience of Germany and France.
We will talk about this already soon, in 10 days (November 2), at the conference “Organic processing and trade: new generation foods”, which is dedicated to organic nutrition for children this year.
European countries have introduced a mandatory percentage of organic food in the public procurement system a long time ago, thus, they also stimulate the production of organic products (we wrote about the examples of Finland, Sweden and experience of northern Europe in general). This process is also beginning in Ukraine.
During the last year, Ukraine has begun an active reform of the school nutrition system. Legislation in the field of baby food is also being improved. The latest changes were approved by the Verkhovna Rada of Ukraine on October 21, 2021.
In 2020, at the initiative of the First Lady of Ukraine Olena Zelenska, the reform of the school nutrition system started.
The aim of the reform, developed by a skilled group of professionals, is to increase the overall level of quality, nutrition and food safety of the menu in Ukrainian schools. During the year, methodological recommendations were developed, requirements for the organization of food in educational institutions were updated, food units were modernized and, finally, the menu itself was developed.
The reform introduces healthy nutrition in educational institutions. In order to implement what was planned and organize a special communication campaign, UNICEF, the Embassy of the Swiss Confederation, the Ministry of Education and Science and the First Lady of Ukraine signed a Memorandum of Understanding and Cooperation this year.
The memorandum includes, in particular, organizing a political round table with representatives of public and private institutions on public procurement of healthy food – in order to discuss food quality requirements for procurement in educational institutions and the implementation of a pilot project on the introduction of organic products in educational institutions.
The price currently remains the main factor for choosing products for tender procurement in Ukraine.
This doesn’t meet modern requirements, so last year, amendments to the Law of Ukraine “On Public Procurement” were approved, and the process of revising the criteria began. Though, at the moment, it’s rather about additional ecological criteria when choosing goods and services, and not about providing a priority choice for such products.
Kateryna Shor, OrganicInfo.ua
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The conference “Organic processing and trade: new generation foods” organised by the Organic Ukraine NGO in partnership with Organic Standard certification body (Ukraine) and OrganicInfo.ua.
General sponsor of the conference BTU-Cener.
The event is organised with the support of:
- Switzerland within the framework of the Swiss-Ukrainian program “Higher Value-Added Trade from the Organic and Dairy Sector in Ukraine” D implemented by the Research Institute of Organic Agriculture (FiBL, Switzerland) in partnership with SAFOSO AG (Switzerland), www.qftp.org, and
- German-Ukrainian Cooperation in Organic Agriculture Project.