Food safety is a new term that has been introduced to designate quality
compliance with prescribed conditions and build trust in the food we consume.
In the broadest sense, food safety means a system of activities involving food
hygiene, quality control an
d food safety. The aim of this chapter is to point out
the risk posed by the human body's long
-term exposure to chemical
contaminants in food and when they are contained in permitted concentrations.
Safe food cannot cause adverse effects on human health i
f it is produced,
prepared and used according to its intended purpose. Food of appropriate
quality is food that meets the prescribed quality standards and prescribed
requirements for declarations, presentations and advertising for that type of
food. The sa
fety and quality of food is unconditionally required by domestic and
international legislation, but also by consumers who rightly expect the food they
consume to be safe and of appropriate quality. Food safety assessment is carried
out in accordance with t
he applicable food regulations. The laboratory testing of
food safety implies control of health safety and quality of food, and as an
example, an overview of the test results of selected safety parameters for
samples submitted for analysis from foreign tra
de and internal traffic in the
Republic of Srpska in the period (2015
-2019) is presented. Food safety is
important for public health due to the risk of contamination of food of
microbiological origin, chemical contaminants in food (metals, mycotoxins,
pesticide residues and antibiotics...), but also toxic substances originating from
packaging that may be in contact with food. Modern scientific literature
indicates that the spectrum of newly discovered contaminants is much wider.
Acrylamide, as a contaminan
t in food that is formed by thermal treatment of
food at elevated temperatures, deserves special importance. Professional
literature indicates that acrylamide, the control of which has not yet become
regular, can lead to the manifestation of negative effec
ts on human health.
Any early recognition of the chemical risks mentioned, but also all other risks
such as hormones, nitrates, dioxins, polychlorinated biphenyls, polycyclic
aromatic hydrocarbons, mycotoxins (patulin, fumonisins, deoxynivalenol, T
-2
and
HT
-2 toxins), whose control is provided by food regulations through
continuous laboratory control that has a public health importance for the
preservation and improvement of the health of the population.
