Most frequently asked questions

When creating your favorite dairy products, we do everything to ensure that they are tasty, beneficial, and satisfying. But the first requirement we place on every product we produce is impeccable quality and absolute food safety.

Lactalis Ukraine was one of the first in Ukraine to be able to export products to the European Union - this is proof that we comply with international standards for food quality and safety.

What is it and how is it deciphered?

In English, it is “Hazard Analysis and Critical Control Points”, that is, the principles by which an enterprise must monitor all processes in order to eliminate risks to human health.

And critical control points are the most important stages of production at which it is possible to eliminate risks that affect the safety of a food product.

HACCP is what allows you to identify hazards, create rules that will help avoid them, and follow them to guarantee the production of safe products.

According to the legislation of Ukraine, the implementation of HACCP is mandatory and is controlled by the relevant authorities. In Lactalis Ukraine, the HACCP system was developed and implemented in 2010. The concept of HACCP emerged in the 1960s and was originally developed by the US Armed Forces Laboratory and NASA to prevent the formation of toxins in products taken into space by astronauts.

The system proved so effective that in the 1980s, the US National Academy of Sciences proposed using it to ensure product safety in the food industry.

The HACCP principles later became the basis for the international ISO 22000 standards.

In 1946, representatives of 25 countries around the world gathered in London and agreed to create an organization that would develop and legalize international standards that would be common to all manufacturers or service providers in the world. (A standard is a document that establishes requirements, key principles, characteristics, according to which products, services, processes are created and used.) Thus was born the International Organization for Standardization (ISO) - the International Organization for Standardization (https://www.iso.org). Since then, ISO has published almost 23,000 international standards covering virtually all aspects of technology and production. The organization, headquartered in Geneva, has 164 member countries.

What do the numbers in the name of ISO standards mean, for example, one of the international standards that Lactalis Ukraine adheres to, ISO 9001:2008? The numbers before the colon explain which area the standard is in. "9001" is a standard for creating and improving a quality management system that helps produce demanded and high-quality products and maintain high product quality at all stages of the production cycle.

If a company has an ISO 9001 certificate, it means that all processes on which the quality of its products depends are built as efficiently as possible, and product quality is a priority for all divisions of the organization.

The numbers after the colon - in this case "2008" - are the year when ISO approved this particular version of the standard.

How do you know that a company complies with an international standard?

This is confirmed by a special certificate. The organization must undergo an international audit, during which they will check whether the company actually complies with all the requirements stipulated by the standard. To obtain the ISO 9001:2008 certificate, Lactalis Ukraine passed this audit back in December 2009. The following year, we received a certificate of compliance with another international standard – ISO 22000:2005.

An international standard in the field of food safety management, which establishes requirements for all companies in the food chain. It is based on the principles of HACCP – Hazard Analysis and Critical Control Points.

Requirements for food industry enterprises specified in the ISO 22000 standard: • use of exclusively specialized machinery, machines and equipment for the production of products;

• ensuring the safety of the operation of buildings and premises;

• timely inspection of equipment and its maintenance;

• timely and sufficient supply of water, steam and air;

• proper use of raw materials and materials during production;

• proper handling of semi-finished and finished food products;

• taking measures to prevent contamination of surfaces and equipment;

• control over the appearance of pests;

• carrying out sanitary and hygienic measures;

• monitoring the hygiene and health of personnel working at the enterprise. Since 2010, every three years, our company's factories have successfully passed an international audit and received a certificate of compliance with ISO 22000:2005 requirements. Every year, Lactalis enterprises in Ukraine also undergo a surveillance audit.

Obtaining ISO 22000:2005 certificates shows that we have chosen the right path - the path of caring for the safety and health of people who choose our products.

The US Institute of Food Technologists called ultra-high-temperature pasteurization “the greatest achievement in food technology of the 20th century.” In most European countries, UHT milk accounts for 90% of the total product consumed.

In our stores you can see a wide range of healthy milk of various processing: pasteurized, sterilized and ultra-high-temperature (UHT). PASTEURIZATION. This is a one-time heating of milk (liquid products) to 65-95 °C.

After pasteurization, milk retains most of its beneficial properties, but it does not completely protect against microbes and bacteria (getting rid of some, it only makes other spores less active). After pasteurization, milk is not completely free of microbes, so it can quickly spoil.

STERILIZATION. Milk is kept at a temperature above 100 °C for 20-30 minutes.

Such milk is completely sterile, has a long shelf life. But during processing, sterile milk loses almost all its beneficial components. ULTRA-HIGH TEMPERATURE (UHT). Milk treatment for 3-4 seconds at a temperature of 135-150 °C, after which the milk is immediately cooled and poured into sterile, hermetic packaging.

During UHT treatment, milk sugar (lactose) is not destroyed, mineral salts, vitamins and valuable enzymes retain their beneficial properties. Ultra-high temperature pasteurization allows you to obtain milk that is free not only from microbes, but also from their spores and vegetative forms, so UHT milk has a long shelf life.

However, UHT milk is less suitable for preparing fermented milk products at home.

In 2020, 20 billion liters of milk were collected worldwide by the Lactalis Group.

Since its creation, the Lactalis Group has grown steadily in France and, above all, internationally, developing genuine expertise in corporate integration. Its ambition is to continue its internationalization and consolidate its status as a global and local Group everywhere in the world. In 2018, Lactalis passed the mark of 100 acquisitions in 15 years.

Today, 266 production sites are spread across 51 countries, and commercially in 150.

A PDO is a European Union quality mark that protects products where all stages of production are carried out according to recognized know-how in the same geographical area, in compliance with precise specifications. PDO = AOC

Every day, the Lactalis Group is committed to preserving the diversity of dairy traditions that make our regions so rich. This commitment to taste and quality has made the Group the world’s leading producer of PDO and raw milk cheeses. No fewer than 38 European PDO and PGI cheeses are produced by the Group.

Every day, our R&D teams come up with the products of tomorrow, offering a wide range of products to meet specific needs at every stage of life. These range from infant nutrition to medical nutrition, from fresh convenience products to sports supplements. To achieve this, Lactalis strives to maintain a plurality of sources of innovation, notably through numerous external collaborations, such as with INRA, engineering schools, universities and our suppliers.