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Ensuring meat safety is a significant concern in Serbia, as in any country. To address this issue, the Serbian government has implemented several measures, including regular inspections of slaughterhouses and meat processing facilities and adhering to EU regulations on meat safety. These regulations stipulate that all meat products must meet stringent hygiene, storage, and labeling standards. In addition, consumers are advised to buy meat products only from trustworthy sources to safeguard their health. While the issue of meat safety in Serbia remains a concern, the government and consumers are taking steps to mitigate the risks associated with consuming meat products. Serbia’s meat processing industry focuses on developing new, healthier products with “clean label” formulations and innovative packaging films. However, the welfare of animals during the slaughtering process has been a topic of concern among animal rights organizations. Although regulations exist to ensure the humane treatment of animals during the slaughtering process, enforcing these regulations has been criticized as inadequate. Efforts are being made to educate and enforce humane treatment, but much more work is needed to ensure that animals are treated with dignity and respect. From a research perspective, it is evident that the Serbian meat sector significantly impacts natural resources, especially water, and energy. The industry also pollutes the environment through wastewater discharge and contributes to climate change in terms of global warming, acidification, and eutrophication. Future research should focus on finding ways to minimize the environmental impact of the meat value chain.

Pulsed electric fields (PEF) is a non-thermal technology that is still looking for implementation on a larger scale by the meat industry. Its sustainability dimension, which is much improved by lowering energy consumption and shortening treatment times compared to conventional technologies, may tip the scale for successfully shifting the PEF technology readiness level to industrial application. This review provides an overview of the latest knowledge, and in the last three years, on using PEF processing in meat to enhance its functionality, nutrition, texture, colour and sensory quality. PEF treatment could improve meat’s protein digestibility and solubility while having no negative impact on its nutritional value. However, controversial indications regarding PEF’s effect on meat cooking loss are reported. Colour changes of meat after PEF treatment are directly proportional to the extent of total specific energy inputs used in the processing, while the effect of PEF on meat sensory properties is yet to be discovered. Since the ability of PEF to achieve its desired goals is dependent on many different factors, including the type of meat, electric field strength, number and duration of electric pulses, and others, more studies are needed to fully understand specific conditions that can be dependably applied in the meat industry.Highlightspulsed electric fields improve functional quality of meatpulsed electric fields do not negatively affect nutritional quality of meatpulsed electric fields sustainability research in meat industry is hugely missing

This study analyzes the influence of two different types of game meat (deer and wild boar) in relation to quality characteristics and oral processing attributes of skinless sausage. The goal of this study was to compare grilled game-meat-based “ćevap” with conventional pork-meat-based samples. Research comprised of color analysis, evaluation of textural components, testing degree of difference, temporal dominance of sensations, calculation of main oral processing attributes, and examination of particle size distribution. The results show that oral processing attributes are similar in between samples and concur with results of the pork-based sample. This confirms the working hypothesis that it is possible to make game-meat-based “ćevap” fully comparable with conventional pork meat products. In parallel, color and flavor characteristics are influenced by the type of game meat in the sample. Most of the dominant sensory attributes that occurred during mastication were game meat flavor and juiciness. © 2023 by the authors.

“Pirot ‘ironed’ sausage“ (Pis) is a traditional, fermented sausage, made from different types of meat (beef and chevon), without additives or starter cultures. The physical–chemical properties (pH, water activity, fats, moisture, and protein contents) were examined in the initial meat batter stuffing and during ripening. Total bacterial diversity was examined at different time points using both culturable (traditional) and non-culturable (NGS sequencing) approaches. During the ripening, a decrease in pH value, aw, and moisture content was observed, as well as an increase in protein and fat content. At least a two-fold significant decrease was noted for colorimetric values during the ripening period. The dominance of Proteobacteria and Firmicutes was observed in the non-culturable approach in all studied samples. During the ripening process, an increase in Firmicutes (from 33.5% to 63.5%) with a decrease in Proteobacteria (from 65.4% to 22.3%) was observed. The bacterial genera that were dominant throughout the ripening process were Lactobacillus, Photobacterium, Leuconostoc, Weissella, and Lactococcus, while Carnobacterium, Brochothrix, and Acinetobacter were found also, but in negligible abundance. Among the culturable bacteria, Latilactobacillus sakei (Lactobacillus sakei) and Leuconostoc mesenteoides were present in all stages of ripening. © 2023 by the authors.

BACKGROUND: Growing population demands more animal protein products. Pork remains one of the traditional and relatively sustainable types of meats for human consumption. In this paper, life-cycle assessment was performed using data from 12 pig farms. In parallel, a survey on the consumption of pork meat products was conducted analyzing responses from 806 pork meat consumers. The study aims to provide a quantitative calculation of six environmental footprints associated with the consumption of pork meat products in Serbia by analyzing data from pig farms and a pork meat consumption survey. RESULTS Results revealed that pork meat production is responsible for the emission of 3.50 kg CO2(e)kg(-1)live weight, 16.1 MJ(e)kg(-1), 0.151 mg R11(e)kg(-1), 31.257 g SO(2e)kg(-1), 55.030 g PO(4e)kg(-1)and 3.641 kg 1.4 dB(e)kg(-1). Further calculations reveal that weekly emissions of various environmental potentials associated with an average consumer of pork meat products in Serbia are estimated at values of 4.032 kg CO(2e)week(-1), 18.504 MJ(e)week(-1), 0.17435 mg R11(e)week(-1), 35.972 g SO(2e)week(-1)and 63.466 g PO(4e)week(-1). CONCLUSIONS Results show that, on the one hand, pork products are responsible for environmental production impacts that mainly occur on farms while, on the other hand, consumption is characterized with high meat inclusion rates. As a leverage strategy it is recommended for producers to concentrate on lowering the production impacts rather than trying to reach consumers for sustainability conciseness.

BACKGROUND This investigation provides an important insight into Eurasian consumers' food safety beliefs and trust issues influenced by the COVID-19 pandemic. An online survey was conducted in 15 European and Asian countries involving more than 4000 consumers. RESULTS It has confirmed that different socioeconomic characteristics, cultural aspects and education levels shape food safety perceptions within Eurasian countries. The COVID-19 pandemic influenced their beliefs and trust in food safety, which is relatively low on average. However, it is significantly higher for European consumers (especially European Union ones) compared to their Asian counterparts. Both Asian and European respondents agreed that food fraud and climate changes represent a food safety issue. However, European consumers were less concerned regarding the food safety of genetically modified foods and meat and dairy analogs/hybrids. Asian consumers were, to a greater extent, worried about the risk of getting COVID-19 from food, restaurants, food retail establishments and home food deliveries. CONCLUSION Eurasian consumers have put their greatest extent of trust, when food safety assurance is concerned, into food scientists and food producers holding a food safety certificate. Broadly, they are uncertain to what extent their federal governments and food inspectors are competent, able and efficient in ensuring food safety. Higher education of Eurasian consumers was followed by increased food safety confidence in all parts of the food chain. © 2023 The Authors. Journal of The Science of Food and Agriculture published by John Wiley & Sons Ltd on behalf of Society of Chemical Industry.