Cow's milk screening for veterinary drug and pollutant residues in Ukraine for the period from 2020 to 2023

Abstract

Dairy industry is leading in the structure of the food industry of Ukraine at the current stage. It consists of the butter production, cheese production, and milk-canning sub-sectors, as well as manufacturing of whole milk products, since the products of this industry occupy an important place in the consumption of the population. Therefore, research on regulation, toxicological and hygienic assessment of toxic contaminants of various origins must be conducted. The purpose of this study was to assess the cow's milk from Ukrainian farms for presence of key safety indicators over the past 4 years, namely: residues of antibiotics, nitrofurans, coccidiostats, insecticides, fungicides, anthelmintics, corticosteroids, glucocorticosteroids, organochlorine and organophosphate pesticides, mycotoxins, toxic elements, radionuclides. In the period of 2020-2023 7138 samples of cow’s milk from native dairy enterprises from 25 regions of Ukraine were screened for the content of various dangerous substances and compounds from groups A and B which are declared in Directive 96/23/EC. It was established that the milk of cows from Ukraine meets current national standards and is not inferior in terms of quality and safety to EU indicators. Among the inconsistent results, it is worth highlighting the presence of Chloramphenicol in 0.85% of milk samples out of 234 tested for its content, which was 0.03% of the total number of samples, while the content of other investigated drugs and substances was below of the methods detection limit.