Which of the tasted ingredients do you need to take into account whether they are listed on the declaration or are in the served dish if you are allergic; which of the ingredients is considered a novel food; in which may be contaminated by Listeria spp. bacteria; what is recommended to do with excess served food…were some of the questions of the educational quiz that marked the official start of the “Safe2Eat” campaign. This is a campaign of the European Food Safety Authority (EFSA), which has been carried out at the national level for the fourth year in a row by the Croatian Agency for Agriculture and Food (HAPIH).
The participants of this educational quiz hosted by Croatian famous TV quiz host, Joško Lokas, were the representatives of the media and campaign’s partners. The participants revealed the messages of this year’s campaign through the posed questions. The famous Croatian chef – Tomica Đukić, head chef of our national football team, designed and enigmatically presented three creative dishes of diverse nutritional composition that the participants of this interactive workshop at a gastronomic location in Baranja had the task of discovering, while thinking intensively – what is on the plate? This is the lightmotive of this year’s edition of the food safety awareness campaign, according to which we want to trigger critical thinking and promote engagement among Europeans regarding making good decisions while buying, preparing and consuming food.
Chef Đukić confirmed that the task was challenging, and he “hid” as many as 61 ingredients in his three-course menu! While discovering the correct answers, including fish bighead carp (lat.Hypophthalmichthys) as a perishable food, black Slavonian pig as locally grown, couscous as a nutritious cereal, goji berries as novel food, pistachio as a potential allergen, chef pointed out the connection between selected ingredients and some of the themes of this year’s campaign and shared some small secrets of great chefs.
All participants showed enviable knowledge of food and food preparation, and the winning team was the one with the humorous name Schweine caramels (translated as well-known čvarci; pork cracklings) consisting of Vesna Latinović – captain of the team (Glas Slavonije), Marina Bešić Đukarić (Nova TV), Tanja Popović Filipović (Center for Consumer Education and Information), Ivica Korman (Agroglas) and Nikola Patković (Jutarnji list), which, along with the additional bonus of questions, accurately determined the most ingredients. This is only the first of numerous interactive workshops that will be conducted by HAPIH’s team in the upcoming months during the Safe2Eat campaign, with similar activations of targeted groups of citizens.
