Companies@UA: База компаний Украины

Kyiv, July 17 (Interfax-Ukraine) – Ukraine's state committee for technical regulation and consumer policy plans this year to increase from two to nine the number of laboratories that are to detect genetically modified organisms (GMO) in foodstuffs, according to the deputy head of the committee, Serhiy Cherepkov.

"By Q4, 2009, another seven laboratories will open... In September the training of specialists for the laboratories will start," he said at a roundtable devoted to problematic issues of GMO marking of foods at Interfax-Ukraine on Thursday.

Cherepkov said that at present, five laboratories that can detect GMOs in foodstuff are operating.

He said that the committee also plans in 2010 to supply equipment to all laboratories of the committee functioning in the regions of Ukraine.

Commenting the committee's work, Cherepkov said that the committee was the initiator of cabinet resolutions on the introduction GMO marking for foods.

He said that the committee monitors the quality of foodstuff only during the process of their certification or during tests. The committee can oversee only requirements for packaging and GMO marking according to the cabinet resolution, he said.

First deputy chairman of All-Ukraine Ecological League, Tetiana Tymochko, said that the law on the state system of bio-security in GMO creation, testing, transportation and usage is the worst law on bio-security issues in the existing laws in Europe and former Soviet Union countries.

She said that the law does not stipulate a clear percentage of GMO content in products that should be marked, and does not regulate the presence of absence of GMO in foodstuffs, and relevant amendments to four Ukrainian laws have been drawn up.

Tymochko said that the public knows more about GMO issues than the officials who approve the laws on the topic.

The lawyers also drew attention to possible problems in the realization of the cabinet resolution.

Roman Khrustenko, a lawyer and managing partner of the Ol&Rust Law Firm, said that the cabinet had exceeded its powers in issuing a resolution setting the percentage of GMO content in foodstuff that should be marked, and introducing tougher rules for the obligatory placement of information on labels.