"Food on the Croatian market is safe and we are part of the European food safety system, which is the most complex and demanding and therefore provides the highest level of consumer protection, it was said on Monday at the 4th Croatian Conference on Food Risk Assessment," state agency Hina said on Monday.

The 4th edition of the Croatian Conference on Food Risk Assessment was held on the occasion of World Food Safety Day organised by the Croatian Agency for Agriculture and Food (HAPIH).

The agency’s director Darja Sokolic said that Croatian consumers think about food safety slightly more than the average European Union citizen, which was why the European Food Safety Agency chose Croatia along with six other member states last year, and financed the “Europe chooses safe food” project with the aim of encouraging additional consumer education related to food safety and pointing out the science behind food safety.

“We were rated with the best rating and this year we have been given the opportunity to conduct another campaign that starts in the middle of this month,” said Sokolic.

The head of the veterinary and food safety department within the Ministry of Agriculture, Tatjana Karacic, noted that a high priority of the ministry is to ensure food safety in order to protect public health. She also underscored that every year the ministry prepares several types of food monitoring in the area of food safety, and this year HRK 24 million has been allocated again for that purpose.

The results of all our monitoring processes, both last year and before, indicate that there is a high level of food safety in Croatia as well, which means there is a very small percentage of negative results by laboratory tests, so local consumers can be completely sure of the food on the market, she said.

She added that all food that was found to be non-compliant, is registered in the RASSF (Rapid Alert System) process and is quickly withdrawn from the market.