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This paper aimed to review the publications on mycotoxins' presence in cereals and foodstuffs originated from the Serbian market covering the period from 2005 to 2022. The review covers all the important steps in mycotoxins analysis including sampling, sample preparation, instrumental analysis, and concentration ranges in which the mycotoxins were found. Also, the results were interpreted from the European Union regulation point of view. The review emphasizes the importance of multi-mycotoxins analysis for determining the simultaneous presence of mycotoxins that can negatively affect the Serbian human population. The most frequently used instrumental technique in the mycotoxin analysis of Serbian products was the Enzyme-Linked Immunosorbent Assay followed by the Ultra-High Performance Liquid Chromatography coupled with triple quadrupole mass spectrometry. Most of the studies undertaken in Serbia until now investigated a few groups of matrices such as wheat, maize, milk, and dairy products. Only a few studies involved specific matrices such as nuts, dried fruits, biscuits, cookies, and spices. The review showed that contamination of milk and dairy products with aflatoxin M1 (AFM1), occurred at the very beginning of 2013, was the major health issue related to the population health. The contamination of milk and dairy products with the AFM1 was a consequence of maize contamination with aflatoxins which occurred in the year 2012, characterized by drought conditions. The studies dealing with the analysis of masked and emerging mycotoxins are rare and more attention should be paid to monitoring the presence of these types of mycotoxins in foodstuffs from Serbia.

Packaging is inseparable retainer of almost all food products. However, most of produced packaging ends as packaging waste after consumption of the product. Increasing amounts of packaging waste that should be managed represents serious challenge of every modern society. There are many different approaches to address this subject, amongst which biodegradable, natural biopolymer-based or even edible packaging holds considerable potential. In this paper, a by-product of edible oil industry, left after completed extraction by cold pressing of oil from hulls of pumpkin seeds, was used to produce biopolymer packaging films. Pumpkin oil cake was used to produce composite bio-based films. Different filtration of film forming suspension was applied in order to test composite film production using different filtration fractions, leading to higher process yield and minimizing waste. In addition, films were casted on surface, about ten times larger comparing to the cast surface typically reported for these types of films in the literature, in order to test the possibility for commercial production and scale up process. Also, casted mass of film forming suspension was varied in order to define minimal casting mass per unit area. Presented results showed that biopolymer films based on the pumpkin oil cake can be successfully produced in sheets (50x35 cm), compared to films earlier produced in the form of discs with diameter 12 cm. Different filtration fractions from initial film forming suspension can be used for film formation, leading to increased production yield. Different filtration fractions lead to different film properties that should be adjusted according to selected application. Casted mass of film forming suspension was successfully decreased (comparing to earlier literature data) without compromising film functional properties and minimal casting mass was defined as 26 g/m2.

Growing consumer demand for the food without chemical preservatives focused significant extent of research in the direction of finding natural compounds that can be used in food preservation. In this context, natural substances with strong antimicrobial and antioxidant properties, like essential oils, as well as natural biopolymers, particularly draw attention. Natural biopolymers can serve as carriers of the active components, such as essential oils in order of their sustained release to the food during storage, and may themselves exhibit activity in protecting foods from oxidation and/or microbial spoilage. Chitosan has been extensively studied as semi-natural polymer with expressed bioactive properties. While antimicrobial activity of chitosan solution in different acids has been confirmed towards different bacteria, yeasts and moulds, reports concerning intensity, underlying machanism and different factors afecting antioxidant activity of chitosan vary through the available literature. This paper presents a review in the field of antioxidative activity of chitosan with different properties, as well as chitosan based biopolymer films in order to clarify this aspect of chitosan bioactivity and confront different reports found in the literature.

The aim of this study was to evaluate bioactivity of chitosan film with incorporated caraway essential oil by measuring antioxidant and antimicrobial activity. A Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy was used to determine the potential interaction of functional groups of chitosan film and incorporated caraway essential oil. New detected peaks and main shifts in the peaks of chitosan spectra are attributed mainly to presence of s-(+)-carvone and limonene, the main components of caraway essential oil. The antioxidant activity of chitosan film was analyzed by DPPH method. Chitosan film without incorporated caraway essential oil showed the lowest scavenging ability (29.95%, after 24 h). The addition of different concentrations of caraway essential oil into chitosan film significantly enhanced antioxidant activity of pure chitosan film, reaching the maximum of 95%. ASTM E 2149 - 01 method was performed to evaluate the antimicrobial activity of chitosan films. The reduction of bacteria cell number in contact with examined films was tested on Gram-positive bacteria Staphylococcus aureus and Listeria monocytogenes and Gram-negative bacteria Escherichia coli and Salmonella Typhimurium. The most sensitive bacteria was Staphylococcus aureus and the most resistant bacteria was Salmonella Typhimurium for all tested films. These results suggested that incorporation of caraway essential oil into chitosan film significantly improved its antioxidant and antimicrobial activity. The film showed a great potential to be used as an active packaging material.