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The purpose of this paper is to investigate if there is a difference in hygiene parameters of raw milk produced in organic and conventional farm of similar size. In parallel, the aim was to determine if there are differences in pasteurized organic and conventional milk samples delivered on the market.

Raw milk samples were analyzed for aerobic colony count (ACC), somatic cell count (SCC), acidity, temperature, fat and protein content. On the other side, final products of organic and conventional pasteurized milk with 2.8 percent declared milk fat were analyzed for Raman spectroscopy, color change and sensorial difference.

Results of raw milk analysis showed statistically significant differences in fat content, SCC, acidity, temperature and ACC (p<0.05). It is of note that ACC for organic milk were lower for approx. 1 log CFU/ml compared to conventional milk samples. Pasteurized organic milk samples had a significantly higher L* value than those samples originating from conventional farms, indicating that organic is “more white” compared to conventional milk. According to the results of triangle test, with 95 percent confidence no more than 10 percent of the population is able to detect a difference.

A limitation of this research is the fact that good veterinary practices at farms, namely, animal health and adequate usage of medicine for treating the animals, animal welfare and animal feeding were not analyzed.

This study analyzed potential differences in organic and conventional milk at two important production stages of the milk chain – at receipt at dairy plant (raw milk) and perceived by consumers (final product).

The purpose of this study was to evaluate food handling practices and food safety knowledge among undergraduate students in the Republic of Serbia. It was also to determine whether the university curriculum influences the food safety outcome among participating students.

A structured, self-administrative questionnaire was designed and used to assess the level of food handling practices and food safety knowledge among undergraduate students in the Republic of Serbia. In total, 240 students were involved in this study. For each participating student, the food handling practice score (FHPS) and food safety knowledge score (FSKS) was calculated by dividing the sum of correct answers by the total number of correct responses. Additionally, knowledge gaps among students of food/health related and non-food/health related faculties were identified.

The average FHPS for all students was 46%, while the average FSKS was 56%. Both FHPS and FSKS scores were significantly associated with the education, and students of food/health related faculties (Food Technology, Veterinary Medicine and Medicine) obtained better scores compared to students of non-food/health related faculties (Faculty of Agriculture, Economics and Faculty of Philology). Only 12.5% of all students and only 3.3% of non-food/health related students knew that food contaminated with food poisoning bacteria cannot be recognized by visual, olfactory or taste checks. The results indicated that 95% of students apply good practice of hand hygiene before preparing food, while only 52.5% of all students declared that they wash their hands for at least 20 s.

This is the first research aimed to investigate the food handling practices and food safety knowledge among undergraduate students in this part of Europe. Identifying knowledge gaps can help identifying at-risk populations and knowledge-based interventions. Also, novelty of this research was the connection between students' knowledge and curriculum of different food/health related faculties.

The main purpose of this paper was to evaluate the validation process of food safety control measures.

The validation of control measures has been analyzed at 50 food companies in Serbia. The sample included companies that produce food of both plant and animal origin and have certified food safety management systems. A total of 156 control measures that combat physical hazards (41.6%), followed by microbial hazards (34.0%) and chemical hazards (24.4%), have been analyzed. To enable quantification of the validation protocols, each control measure was assigned a score.

The validation scores showed that the highest level of validation was observed in large companies, as opposed to small and medium-sized companies (p < 0.05). The type of food safety hazards and the food sector did not reveal any statistical differences in-between the scores. The main approach to validating control measures was referring to the technical documentation of equipment used (52.6%), followed by scientific and legal requirements (30.7%). Less than 20% of the analyzed control measures were validated with operational data collected on-site. No mathematical modeling was observed for the sampled food companies. Future steps should include the development of validation guides for different types of control measures and training modules.

This study can serve as an improvement guide for food safety consultants, food safety auditors, certification bodies, inspection services, food technologists and food managers.

This study is one of the first to provide an insight into how food companies validate their control measures to combat microbial, chemical and physical food safety hazards.

The purpose of this paper is to evaluate the hygienic design of a scalable unit for supercritical carbon dioxide drying of food.

For the purpose of this study, a checklist has been developed, covering requirements from sanitary standards and industry-tailored guidelines. Beyond hygienic design, failure mode and effects analysis of the results were performed to assess the potential food safety risks that may arise from failures to hygienic design requirements.

The overall score of the hygienic design was 46 percent. This kind of evaluation revealed two types of nonconformities. The first type was related to inadequate sanitary procedures. The second type was associated to design failures.

The highest risk was designated to problems related to cleaning and sanitation followed by risks associated with the formation of dead zones and biofilms.

This study provides valuable insight to engineers and food technologists on hygienic design issues.

Application of a similar methodology was used for evaluating hygienic design of other non-thermal food technologies.

Supercritical carbon dioxide (sc-CO₂) is a promising novel treatment that might be used in the food industry, such as sc-CO₂ pasteurisation and sc-CO₂ drying. Before sc-CO₂ treated foodstuffs may be introduced to European market, they have to be authorised according to novel food regulation. Therefore, the purpose of this paper is to give an overview of available literature data on sc-CO₂ treated fruits and vegetables, which might be used for novel food authorisation.

The paper is based on literature data available via Science Direct, EBSCO and Wiley concerning sc-CO₂ pasteurisation and drying of fruits/vegetables. Studies performed on animal foodstuffs were manually excluded, while articles related to novel foods and legislation were included in the study.

Database search resulted 34 articles related to microbiological and compositional/nutritional changes in sc-CO₂ treated foods. Obtained data indicated that sc-CO₂ pasteurisation is effective in inactivating microorganisms in liquids, while no general conclusion on the microbiological quality of sc-CO₂ pasteurised solid foods or sc-CO₂ dried foods could be made. Available literature data showed that sc-CO₂ pasteurisation did not result in significant compositional/nutritional changes in liquids, while for sc-CO₂ pasteurised solid foods or sc-CO₂ dried foods, one is not able to make common conclusions due to insufficient research data. Therefore, additional research and case-by-case study for each treated food have to be prepared.

This study is original to the extent that it brought together available information on sc-CO₂ pasteurised and dried foods, needed the novel food application.

In the past two decades the popularity of artisan cheese emerged. The present study aimed to investigate similarities and differences in beliefs towards artisan cheeses among participants from Serbia, Croatia and Spain and to determine consumer profiles. Better understanding of their behaviours and beliefs could serve as the basis for the development of appropriate production and marketing strategies and for further popularisation of artisan cheeses.

The data on demographic structure, behaviours and beliefs of 947 participants in total were obtained via a questionnaire collected online. In order to identify consumer profiles and to define their specific beliefs, a cross-country cluster analysis has been conducted. Four clusters were identified: “highly educated men”, “highly educated women”, “millennials” and “educated senior women”. Mann–Whitney U test was used to identify statistically significant differences between countries and clusters.

Respondents from different countries had different preferences for cheese types and different ways of consumption. All participants valued artisan cheeses more than industrial cheeses in terms of healthiness and quality, but they believe that there is still much to be done in terms of proper packaging, labelling, branding, widening of assortment and providing better availability. The results of the present study revealed that participants had no clear opinion regarding trust in artisan cheese safety.

Up to date, no study investigated beliefs of consumers from Serbia and Croatia towards artisan cheese. Original consumer pool has unique characteristics: they are far more oriented towards open markets and purchasing cheese directly from producers; they have different preferences towards cheese types and different consuming habits. Unique consumer characteristics provided original findings considering their beliefs.

This paper aims to present results from a research that analyzed the quality of labels available in the Serbian food market and consumers’ attitudes toward food labels.

A total of 899 food labels have been analyzed in relation to the presence of legally required information, their readability to average consumer and presence of nutritional/health claims and/or nutritional information. In parallel, 400 respondents were interviewed in the survey of consumers’ attitudes regarding labels.

Results revealed that 38.2 per cent of food products hold labels that are not fully readable to average consumers. Regarding basic label information, 11 per cent of foods have missing information in terms of series/lot identification. The majority of the products (87.4 per cent) have only basic nutritional information with 4.6 per cent of products holding nutritional claims. Consumers with active sport activities showed higher awareness of nutritional information. There were no statistically significant differences between smokers and non-smokers regarding their attitudes toward nutritional information. Age and education play a significant role in ranking nutritional facts. The most important nutritional information is fat content, followed by sugar and vitamins.

The nature of the study did not allow conclusions regarding causal relationship between food products and consumers as well as if nutritional information affects consumers’ choices and purchasing patronage.

The findings of this study are worthy, as they report the Serbian consumers’ understanding of labels and nutritional information as well as the status food labels sold in the Serbian market.

The purpose of this paper was to evaluate food safety knowledge of among meat handlers in Serbian meat establishments along the meat chain, i.e. in slaughterhouses, meat processing plants and retail stores.

A structured, self-administrative questionnaire was designed and used to assess the level of food safety knowledge among handlers in different meat establishments. In total, of 352 meat handlers were involved in this study, with 110 handlers from slaughterhouses (31 per cent), 125 handlers from meat processing plants (36 per cent) and 116 handlers from retail stores (33 per cent). For each participant, the knowledge score was calculated by dividing the sum of correct answers by the total number of correct responses. Additionally, knowledge gaps among meat handlers were identified for each question across the three types of establishments (slaughterhouses, meat processing plants and retail stores).

The average knowledge score for all participants was 64 per cent, whereas handlers from slaughterhouses and meat processing plants obtained significantly better scores (65 per cent and 66 per cent, respectively) than handlers from retail (60 per cent, p < 0.05). The knowledge score among all meat handlers was significantly associated with the age, education and previous food safety trainings. Results indicated that 57.9 per cent meat handlers could identify that bacteria will readily multiply at 25 °C, but they do not understand the manifestation of bacterial growth and incidence in food, as only 5.5 per cent of all meat handlers knew that food contaminated with food poisoning bacteria cannot be recognized by visual, olfactory or taste checks.

This is the first research aimed to investigate the food safety knowledge among meat handlers in Serbia and also the first research performed to determine food safety knowledge among workers operating in different phases of the meat chain, namely meat handlers from slaughterhouses, meat processing plants and retail stores.

The purpose of this paper is to analyze the current situation of multidimensional food safety assurance in Serbia, as an official candidate for European Union (EU) membership, in relation to its EU food law harmonization efforts.

Serbian assurance scheme was covered in this paper included food safety legislation, control and standards.

The food safety system in Serbia needs improvements in the area of effectiveness and efficiency of food safety control and inspection services, knowledge and expertise of state inspectors, governmental officials, food safety consultants and auditors. Additionally, problems related to the overlapping responsibilities of various legal authorities and inspection services have to be solved, with an improved transparency and communication between legal authorities, customers, consumers and food business operators.

An overview of current situation in food safety assurance in Serbia is shown.