The Food Safety Agency of Bosnia and Herzegovina conducts an analysis of the quality of the food we use every year, and the results of the last publicly available one show that in the period from the beginning to the end of 2018, a total of 85,601 food samples were processed, of which 4,007 samples or 4.68 percent , writes Radio Sarajevo.
The largest number of food samples was taken from the category of meat and livestock and its products, which accounted for 44.06 percent, followed by complex dishes and ready meals of 21.65 percent and cereal dough and products based on it 14.57 percent.
Cereal dough and products based on it had far worse results, ie as much as two percent of those analyzed were defective.
Within this analysis, vegetables were without any objections, but not fruits, of which 11 out of 458 samples were defective, or two percent.
When it comes to meat and meat products, 374 samples out of 31,197 were defective. In almost all categories, flavored water, water-based drinks and similar products were also out of order. At the same time, according to the presented data, a total of 66,035 food samples were tested for microbiological parameters. Out of the total number of analyzed samples, 17,421 samples were sampled for the purpose of official control, and 48,614 samples for other purposes. Of the total number of samples analyzed, 794 samples or 1.20 percent did not comply with applicable regulations.
Again, the “most problematic” was meat and meat products with a total of 201 samples out of 21,910 analyzed, which is 1.23 percent. The microbiological analysis also showed that 207 products were defective in the category of dough and dough-based products, while in eggs and egg products there was only one such case out of about three hundred analyzed.
The most common cause of microbiological malfunction was the presence of enterobacteria, Escherichia coli, aerobic mesophilic bacteria, and yeasts and molds.
Escherichia was found in 204 meat samples, as many as 135 aerobic bacteria, 175 enterobacteria, and staphylococci in 61 and salmonella in another 35 samples. A total of 4778 food samples were sampled and analyzed for physicochemical parameters.
Of the total number of analyzed samples, 105 samples (2.20%) did not comply with applicable regulations.
The data on honey are devastating. Of the 295 analyzed, as many as 21 percent, or 62, were practically not honey, but “substitutes” made from sugar, dyes and other additives.
