Contents 2/2020

In June 2019, the European Union reached a political agreement on a free trade agreement with Mercosur states – a leading food producer and exporter in the world. The aim of the article is to analyze Poland’s agri-food trade with Mercosur and assess the impact of a trade agreement on the Polish food producers. The analysis shows that the reduction of customs protection may result in an increase in the deficit in Polish trade in agri-food products with Mercosur. Polish beef and poultry meat producers may be the most concerned about the loss of competitive advantage. On the other hand, producers of certain food products, such as chocolate products, dairy products and alcoholic beverages, may have limited growth in exports to Mercosur countries.

KEY WORDS: free trade agreement, Mercosur, agri-food products, foreign trade

The food and drink industry is one of the largest manufacturing sectors in the European Union and its annual turnover reaches EUR 1.2 trillion and it is also the greatest employer with 4.7 million employees. The industry supplies 1.5 billion meals and drinks to the market. The majority of the sector is comprised of small and medium enterprises [99%]. The value of the annual EU food and drink export is EUR 110 billion and nearly 25% of the production is exported outside EU countries. The food and drink export of the EU amounts for 19% of global export.

KEY WORDS: food, drink, production, EU

The variations in profitability of pig breeding depend, among others, on agricultural policy, legal regulations, feed production, farmers’ education, farm structure, agricultural consulting, diseases or external competition. In basis of the analysis of data in the period 2000-2019, an overall decrease in the pig population and an increase in prices received for 1 kg live weight of pigs were observed. The largest population in 2002 (approx. 19 million units) and the highest average purchase price in 2019 (approx. 5.81 PLN/ kg), were noted. ASF, an incurable viral disease, which has caused 2,961 cases in wild boars and 213 in herds of pigs until November 5, 2018, is still a big threat to the Polish pig sector. Various regions of Poland were subject to restrictions and legal requirements in the field of breeding or transporting pigs were tightened. It was stated that the greatest crisis of the industry would be the occurrence of ASF in areas that generate approx. 50% of domestic production – in Wielkopolska, Kujawy and Pomerania, and in the Łódź Voivodeship. It is anticipated that in 2020 a slow increase in prices and a decrease of pig population, will continue depending on the structure of exports to non-EU countries.

KEY WORDS: pigs, profitability, breeding, prices, ASF

The article discusses the key problems concerning the Act of 13 June 2019 on labelling products manufactured without the use of genetically modified organisms as products free from such organisms, which standardises the principles of labelling GMO-free food and animal feed. This will put an end to the flexibility of including such information on foodstuffs. The new regulation does not fully eliminate trace amounts GMOs nor does it prevent contact therewith (the permissible GMO limit in food is up to 0.1% and up to 0.9% in animal feed). The act does not exclude the option of feeding animals with GMO feed, save the introduced waiting periods, which may give rise to various issues, including the problem of the technical detectability of genetic modifications or matters related to providing reliable information on products to consumers. However, the primary concern is still whether such marking should be permitted considering the widespread presence of genetically modified organisms and the increasing difficulty in the actual elimination thereof.

KEY WORDS: genetic engineering, genetic modification, food labelling, consumer

Mycotoxins are secondary metabolites of some fungi species and can be found in many foods consumed by humans. These toxins are resistant to technological processes (cooking, frying, baking, distillation, fermentation). Mycotoxins most often contaminate products of animal and plant origin (cereals, processed cereals, vegetables, nuts). It is estimated that about 25% of the world’s harvest may be contaminated with them. Mycotoxins damage crops and cause mycotoxicosis. According to some studies, mycotoxins can be produced in human body after eating food contaminated by fungi. This article presents human health risks caused by mycotoxins found in food. The most important groups of mycotoxins were characterized in terms of their occurrence and toxicity.

KEY WORDS: mycotoxins, food product, prevention, human health

According to FAO data, 35% of the caught fish and sea foods, obtained by the fishing industry are lost. When estimating the food losses and waste, it is important to determine the limits of the food chain links and to define the losses and waste. As it is results from the conducted studies within the frames of the research PROM project, performed in 106 surveyed fish farms, the most frequently indicated losses included those coming during the storage; they appeared in the answers of ca. a half of the respondents. The mentioned losses amounted to 1.10 and 1.23% of the total production in 2017 and 2018. Also, in 19 surveyed fish-processing plants, during the manufacture and preparation of the fish to distribution, the losses of the raw materials and of the manufacture’s products were relatively low and were 1.34 and 1.56 in 2017 and 2018, respectively. The mentioned data do not consider the participation of by-products. In fish processing industry as well as in any other sector, the optimal utilization of all edible parts of the obtained raw materials is a significant matter.

KEY WORDS: food loss and waste, fishing industry, loss prevention, by-products

In the article the characteristics of bacteriocins in the context of their use in food preservation was presented. Bacteriocins are divided into four classes and exhibit antimicrobial activity to varying degrees, which is the result of many factors. Scientific research has proven that bacteriocins can be used as bioconservants or substances in food packaging. The best known and most commonly used bacteriocin is nisin, belonging to class I – lantibiotics. Nisin effectively inhibits the growth of Gram-positive pathogens. It requires the addition of other substances (e.g. lysozyme) to inhibit vegetative and spore forms of Gram-negative bacteria. The application of bacteriocins in the food industry is not widespread – currently only nisin and pediocin are available on the market. So far, research on the activity of bacteriocins is not sufficient, and legal regulations regarding their introduction on the market are restrictive. However, many scientists have confirmed the effectiveness of using bacteriocins in various trades of the food industry, e.g. dairy, cheese, meat, fish, egg or fruit and vegetable trade. Therefore, it is considered reasonable to continue the experiments carried out with them.

KEY WORDS: bacteriocins, bio-preservatives, antimicrobials, active packaging, edible coatings