Legislation, standards and diagnostics as a backbone of food safety assurance in Serbia

Purpose - The purpose of this paper is to analyze the current situation of multidimensional food safety assurance in Serbia, as an official candidate for European Union (EU) membership, in relation to its EU food law harmonization efforts. Design/methodology/approach - Serbian assurance scheme was covered in this paper included food safety legislation, control and standards. Findings - The food safety system in Serbia needs improvements in the area of effectiveness and efficiency of food safety control and inspection services, knowledge and expertise of state inspectors, governmental officials, food safety consultants and auditors. Additionally, problems related to the overlapping responsibilities of various legal authorities and inspection services have to be solved, with an improved transparency and communication between legal authorities, customers, consumers and food business operators. Originality/value - An overview of current situation in food safety assurance in Serbia is shown.