On 7th of April at the Hyatt Regency was held conference about food safety, entitled “ What do weeat?”.
The conference was organized by theTMS CEE and BIZLife, supported by DSW (Deutsch – SerbischeWirtschaftvereignung) and Ministry of Agriculture. Partners of the conferencewere Carnex and Mlekoprodukt .
The theme of the conference was theprocess of food production, from the natural environment to the final product,a comparison of the level of quality and safety with the region and European Union,certificates, hazards and benefits of standardization, and the way of food toglobal markets.
The conference was officially openedby the Minister of Agriculture and Environment, PhD Snežana Bogosavljević Bošković.
“As a Ministry, our priority isto ensure the proper functioning of all institutions in charge of food safetyand the establishment of full trust of citizens. In that way , our activitiesare aimed at improving the legal framework and increasing the efficiency ofinspection services , in order to effectively control and risk management ,” said Minister and added that food in Serbia is healthy and safe, and Serbianproducers exported quality products .
CEO of TMS, Boško Gavović , said hewas very pleased by the fact that the conference is hosted about 200 people,also, he see the potential for this to become an annual ritual due to theactuality of the topic. He said that the demands are higher from year to year,but unfortunately, the producers consider certification as obligation, and thatshould be changed as soon as possible. He added an interesting fact- that from 470000 registeredagricultural holdings, we have 2500-3000 legal entity and that the number of legalentities who are certified in primary production –is negligible. Speaking aboutthe food industry, from 10000 entities, 4000 own certificates.
Tamara Penjić, Product Manager ofCarnex, said that they are one of the few companies in the domestic meatindustry, which fully controls the entire production process. “We produce animal feed, breeddomestic animals on farms and use modern technology. We carefully select theraw materials used in production and fulfill the highest standards in terms ofquality and food safety, among which are certified ISO, HACCP, IFS and BRC standard. All of thisgives us the right to guarantee the quality and safety of all products from ourfactory, delivered to domestic and foreign customers. “
Jela Petrović , LA TÜV SÜD, SectorManager Food, spoke about why some retail chains require specific standards. Theyare more and more accidents of food poisoning. The most vulnerable categoriesof our population is affected. According to Food Law, HACCP is required, but itis not enough. Quality Management System and food safety over the past fewdecades has become essential in all stages of the agro-food production andsupply chain. Approach to this area is changing significantly over the years,due to more important impact of globalization on the processes of productionand distribution of food. Due to the unevenness of legal regulations at thestate level, there are more and more of retail chains and distributors of food,who require from their suppliers the introduction of specific private standards.These standards are optional from a legal standpoint, but, on the other hand,they are necessary to sell products on the global market.
As one of the answers to the problemof unharmonized legal norms, was formed the Global Food Safety Initiative (GFSI),which now comprises 10 internationally recognized standards. GFSI was formed in2000, as a result of cooperation between the world’s leading experts in sales,production and service provision in the field of food. The goal of theestablishment is to increase customer trust by providing safer food productsworldwide. GFSI coordinate the Consumer Goods Forum. GFSI guide covers all keyfactors in food production: management systems for food safety, good practice(GMP, GAP, GDP, GLP ), HACCP requirements and delivery system for themanagement of food safety . The latest GFSI conductor is covered almost theentire supply chain of food products.
Marija Kalentić, Regional Director ofInternational Organization Dunav Soja, explained: “The import of meat andmilk is our reality, but it is unknown that if these products are without label”GMO free”, in most cases, they are obtained from animals that werefed with genetically modified food. Europe is dependent on imported soya, whichis used for animal feed. In this way the GM soya from Argentina, Brazil foundits way to our table. European countries have found a way to protect theirconsumers just giving the possibility of voluntary labeling of food products andproduct without GMO. Dunav Soja is a European quality standard, whichguarantees that the products (meat, eggs, milk), are covered with sign, arederived from animals that are fed exclusively domestic or European NOT GMOsoybeans. This standard follows and controls all participants throughout thesupply chain soy- from producers, traders, processors of soybeans, animal feedmanufacturers, animal farm- to the final food products.
Only after inspection andcertification of all participants in the chain, from farm to table, finalproduct can be labeled “fed soya controlled origin and quality of theDanube Soya” . Thanks to the official approval of the Danube Soyastandards and codes by the Ministry of Agriculture, consumers in Serbia willhave a choice. This month, we expect the first products on the marketappearance.
As a conclusion, all of us have toget involved in raising awareness about this topic, from chambers of commerceto consumers and producers. This is especially important because of the wholesituation about the opening chapter of European Union accession. Currently, we strive to these laws and thatshould be understood as a positive step forward.