Olga Panova: promoting the culture of milk consumption, we increase the demand

"In April this year, at a meeting with the Prime Minister of the Russian Federation, there was an instruction to work further on measures to provide students of primary school with drinking milk, fermented dairy products and directly squeezed juice first", said Olga Panova, stressing that milk is the main source of calcium for children.

The expert noted that the program "School milk" works in three directions. 

"First, we are talking about the health of children. It is very important to strengthen the health of the younger generation and to form conscious attitude to healthy eating. The program creates a favorable social environment through social protection of the most vulnerable category of citizens-children. In addition, the program is an effective tool to support agriculture, providing farmers with stable sales of products and stimulating technological re - equipment of production", - said Olga Panova. 

Currently, 49 regions take part in the program, where students of 1-4 classes are provided with milk, in Voronezh and Belgorod regions milk is given to children from 1 to 9 classes and from 1 to 11 classes, respectively.


According to Olga Panova, milk consumption in the regions participating in the program "School milk" is higher than the average level in Russia. Thus, in Leningrad region it is 293 kg of milk per capita while the average level in Russia is 236 kg, in Voronezh region – 271 kg per capita, in the Udmurt Republic – 266 kg per capita.

"In Belgorod region the program "School milk" started operating in 2006. For ten years of its implementation, the incidence of gastritis, biliary tract and gallbladder diseases has decreased among schoolchildren, consumption of milk in the region is 10% higher than the average in the Russian Federation, the region ranks 14th among the regions in terms of milk production in agricultural organizations and shows an increase of over 13% by the results of 2017. In Voronezh region, consumption is higher than the average by 14%, the region ranks 6th in terms of milk production at agricultural enterprises, the number of endocrine diseases and metabolic disorders decreased by almost 30%, the incidence of the musculoskeletal system and connective tissue decreased by 16.8%", Olga Panova said. 

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