Ways of harmonizing Ukrainian and international requirements for honey quality

Purpose. The improvement of the quality assessment system of honey and its harmonization with international requirements is an extremely urgent task for Ukraine and requires an immediate solution. In this regard, the task is to analyze domestic and international legislation to identify possible factors hindering the export of honey. Therefore, the purpose of the research was to conduct a comparative analysis of domestic and global requirements for the quality of honey in order to further improve the system for assessing the quality of natural honey and harmonizing national regulatory documents with international standards. Methodology. In studies used such methods as: information collection, its analytical processing and theoretical generalization. To collect information it was used a comparative analysis of such regulatory documents as: ДСТУ 4497: 2005 "Мед натуральный. Технические условия" and Council Directive 2001/110/EC with CODEX STAN 12-1981 Standard for Honey. Findings. It was established that the national standard has a number of differences compared with the requirements of international regulatory documents, which requires immediate approval. A discrepancy regarding the classification of honey was revealed: the national standard provides for the division of honey into grades and the requirements for the first grade are significantly lower than European standards; International standards provide for the classification of honey by purpose. Also, national and international requirements do not agree: a list of honey quality indicators, requirements for their quantitative value and a unit of measurement for honey quality indicators, which makes it very difficult to compare standards. Originality. A comprehensive comparative analysis of national standards of honey quality with international requirements was carried out, problems of honey export were formulated, and the need to improve the domestic legal framework was substantiated. The practical value. Practical recommendations have been developed, the implementation of which will allow to harmonize technical documentation and standards and help create a honey quality control system that meets international requirements

honey; quality indicators; regulatory documents; export