The Ministry of Defence has approved changes to the food product specifications for the Armed Forces. Specialists from the State Operator For Non-Lethal Acquisition were involved in the development. Starting from July, DOT will supply the military with an updated catalogue.
The main goal of updating the product requirements is to improve quality and storage conditions. Some changes are also aimed at synchronizing with market offerings.
“In May, the content of the catalogue for the Armed Forces was changed. Thirty new items were added in response to requests from the military and the market. Some products were renamed, and others were removed, particularly due to lack of demand and irrational expenses. Recently, the Ministry of Defence approved a number of updated product descriptions from this catalogue. These requirements will be communicated to new suppliers who will provide food for the military until the end of the year,” said Viktoria Vynohradova, Director of Procurement Management at DOT.
Key changes to specific product categories include:
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Milk should not contain vegetable fats. This requirement was previously introduced for various types of cheese, sour cream, and butter;
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Meat and fish must be in high-quality packaging, including vacuum packaging and the proper natural gas environment;
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Sausages and frankfurters now have size requirements as well as raw material standards for their production;
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Meat-vegetable preserves: buckwheat, pearl barley, and rice porridge with beef should not contain foreign impurities;
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Vegetables and fruits: standardized size and shape, as well as the permissible percentage of fruits with deviations from the norm. These requirements previously applied to certain fruits, and now the list has been expanded;
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Berries: specified storage temperature and the permissible percentage of fruits with deviations from the norm;
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Pasta: some types must now be made exclusively from durum wheat. To improve quality, the mass fraction of broken and crumbled pieces has also been determined;
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Flakes must meet additional physical and chemical parameters, including the percentage of good-quality kernels. There is also a division into glazed and unglazed flakes for more detailed product descriptions;
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Ketchup and tomato paste now have specified percentages of fat, starch, and chlorides.
We remind you that in June, DOT contracted food suppliers for the Armed Forces for the second half of the year. These suppliers will provide the military with products that meet the updated requirements.
