WILL BUSH DRUMSTICKS DANCE THEIR FAREWELL HOPAK ON THE UKRAINIAN MARKET?

The reason for the dim view taken by the Ukrainian controlling authorities to this dish is the total absence of information about what each such drumstick is actually made of. In the United State poultry meant for exports is kept at special farms and treated using every new technology, including antibiotics, hormones, and small doses of radiation. Elsewhere in the world such products are supplied with special marking, indicating that they are taboo for children and expectant mothers.

In Ukraine, imported products are tested at 130 laboratories within the Derzhstandart framework. Somehow, US drumsticks pass these barriers and are tested in a manner best described as manual. "The trouble is, we haven't got data exchange procedures concerning new technologies used in the US food industry," The Day was told by Mykhailo Mukharovsky, director of the Ukrainian State Research and Production Center for Standardization, Metrology, and Certification, "and the US side does not seem willing to take any steps in this direction. Last year we tried to solve this problem single-handedly; our working group visited the States and purchased the required testing equipment. However, when they wanted to buy specimens of hormones used in poultry's feed the answer was a resolute no. Such agents, it appeared, could be obtained only by permission from a certain US department, and the red tape would take a year. US poultry farms are guarded perhaps better than space centers, and all information concerning the drumsticks turned out strictly classified..."

The conclusion is obvious: if a product cannot be tested it has to be banned. However, The Day was told by Volodymyr Horzheyev, deputy head of the veterinary department at the Ministry of Agriculture, that the drumsticks were not forbidden, but quality control would be made very rigid.