Do Serbian consumers know what theyare eating? What is the number of countries in the world whose agriculture isnot GMO? Does yeast bread really grow and how can mineral water have a positiveeffect on many health problems? These are just some of the questions that wereanswered by global and domestic experts in the field of food, agriculture andquality control at the Second International Conference on Food Safety „What do we eat“, which was held on May 11 in organization of the certification andcontrol body of the TMS CEE and media companies BIZLife at the Belgrade HotelFalkeinsteiner.
The conference was opened by NenadDolovac, Advisor to the Minister of Agriculture and Environmental Protection,with the good news that the Constituent Session of the Expert Council for RiskAssessment in Food Safety was held that very day. This body, consisting of 15experts from different fields, will have an advisory function in order toincrease food safety in our market, but will, among other things, decide on thetrade of genetically modified organisms in Serbia. Dolovac also announced thaton May 22, the label „Serbian quality“ will be promoted, which willstand on certain products originating from Serbia.
Bosko Gavović, general manager ofTMS CEE, speaking about the GMO, has just noticed a little known fact thatSerbia is one of the three countries in the world whose agriculture is not GMO,which is an exceptional opportunity for our country, especially taking intoaccount the fact that In 2050, demand for agricultural products rose by as muchas 70 percent. Nenad Budimovic, secretary of the Association for Agriculture ofthe Serbian Chamber of Commerce, also spoke on the same panel, which had“What do we eat“ theme, which emphasized the advantage of the so-called“premium products“ (such as „baby beans“) for which thereis a high demand for European, but also the world market, but Serbian cattlebreeding is not able to settle them, although there are conditions for theirproduction. Goran Papovic, the president of the National Consumer Organizationof Serbia, said it was symptomatic that in our market, meat is mainly sold,which is said to be „beefsteak“, although it is well known that it isbeef. He also pointed out that even the purchase on the market no longerguarantees a quality and good product, because the producers often put thelabel „organic“, although it is precisely defined what is anorganically grown product; but he praised the readiness of major retail chainsto control their products. Marek Marzec from the International FeaturedStandards – IFS, Central and Eastern Europe, said why the „bigplayers“ in the world market decide to apply some of the standards and whatbrings them. What are all the scams in the food industry are there (forexample, the sale of seed oil such as olive oil or a mozzarella where it saysthat „milk does not contain milk“) spoke Marco Berutti from the TÜVSÜD Management Service.
On the second panel, titled“Specificity of individual types of production“, Gordana Macak,Director of Quality of Milkprodukta, spoke among other things about thetraceability of production in the dairy industry, the recall of products andwhat it represents for the company. Zoran Miladinovic, Baking Center Managerfrom Lesaffre, talked about the main trends in bakery today – the benefits ofusing the so-called acid test, but also „uncovered myth“ that breadswith yeast go up and down, namely, yeast in bakery products is inactivated andcan not to cause fermentation in the digestive system in humans. Prof. Dr.Tomislav Jovanović, professor at the Medical Faculty in Belgrade, presentedinteresting data on the importance of magnesium for human organism and health,as well as the beneficial effect of magnesium-rich water on over 350 vitalcellular reactions.
Thetopic of the third panel was the primary and organic production, and dr BudimirPlavšić, head of the department for health protection and animal welfareprotection of the Veterinary Directorate of the Ministry of Agriculture, Dr.Dragan Šefer, professor of Veterinary Faculty in Belgrade and BratislavMilošević, spoke about the current status of certification in primaryproduction. , MS Manager TMS CEE.
