1. Some Aspects of Food Safety and Quality Ligita Melece, Dr. oec. Latvian State Institute of Agrarian Economics Ligita.Melece@lvaei.lv International Conference „Local Identity Product (LIP) - sustainable support systems for communities in Europe” Riga February, 15, 2011

2. Characteristics or properties of food quality

3. Characteristics of food quality  mandatory; partially mandatory; voluntary or consumers’ demand.

4. Mandatory characteristics of food quality  safety; labelling; packaging; traceability; animal welfare.

5. Partially mandatory characteristics of food quality  ingredients; content; keeping adequate processing methods, which assure product nature (e.g. bread baking; yogurt fermentation; fish smoking etc.); sensory attributes (aroma, texture, taste, shape etc.), which are usually associated with product group (bread, cake, cheese, sausage etc.); fitness or appropriateness for use; environmental considerations.

6. Voluntary characteristics of food quality  look and other and organoleptic characteristics (appearance, smell, taste, touch etc.); nutrition value (energy, fibre, minerals, vitamins etc.); voluntary labelling; price – acceptable for consumers; content;

7. Voluntary characteristics of food quality reputation of producer; uniformity and invariability of product; origin (country, region, place); fitness or appropriateness for use; ethical (work conditions; community oriented; animal welfare, etc.) and environmental (protection of biodiversity; natural resources saving etc.) considerations; quality schemes and brands.

8. Animal welfare; Locality or regionality; Fair price for farmers; Care farming or social farming (health, social or educational care services for one or a range of vulnerable groups of people); Social criteria (family farms; good working conditions etc.); Biodiversity, inter alia of agricultural animals and plants; Cultural aspects, inter alia traditional food. Added value of local or specialty food

9. EU level food quality logos or brands - voluntary certification schemes Protected designation of origin (PDO) Protected geographical indication (PGI) Traditional speciality guaranteed (TSG)

10. The EU organic farming logo

11. Thank you for your attention!