Bread and baked goods in line with European standards – New regulations for baked goods industry

The Ministry of Agriculture and Environmental Protection passed the new Regulation of the quality of grains, milling and bakery products and pasta in late July, which came into effect on August 19 and will start being enforced on January 8, 2018.

As the Ministry says for eKapija, the new Regulation prescribes more precisely the prerequisites regarding the quality of the said products, and the part which deals with grains defines the new parameters for the quality of wheat meant for human consumption, as well as for industrial processing. These parameters used to be defined by standards until now.

– The Regulation enables the purchased wheat to be sorted into human and animal feed. To the end of an easier access to foreign markets and reaching the real price of wheat, new methods for defining parameters of quality have been prescribed, such as are applied in the international market as well. Regarding the parameters for the quality of rice, instead of classifying it, the minimum quality requirements have been defined – the Ministry of Agriculture emphasizes.

They also explain that parameters for the minimum quality of milling products made of wheat have been defined to the end of meeting the new demands of the market. These include the TIP 400 type of flour, integral flour, and flour made of durum wheat. As well, parameters for the quality of other types of flour have been modified to an extent. As for pasta, after assessing the situation in the market, parameters for the quality of certain product which were present neither in the production nor in the market haven’t been defined, whereas the parameters for “new” products, like durum wheat, for example, have.

– Another new feature of the Regulation is the fact that the parameters for quality and methods are jointly defined, which will facilitate the production and marketing of wheat and wheat products – the Ministry says for eKapija.

Precisely defined product categories

Due to the expansion of the offer in bakeries and the introduction of new products in the local market, the parameters for quality are defined in line with the production specification, in the sense of adjusting to the real state of the market.

– The Regulation precisely defines the categories of baked goods, solving the problem of the previously impossible to categorize products, which has made the operations in this section of the food industry easier. At the same time, a more efficient carrying out of official control of the quality of these products has been enabled – explain the representatives of the Ministry of Agriculture.

The legislator, but also the consumers and the baked goods industry, hope that the new regulations will solve, at least to an extent, the dilemma of what kind of bread we’re eating and whether the contents of a product match the declaration. The old regulations were often unclear, which left room for bakers to cut corners.

The new Regulation prescribes that rye bread must contain at least 70% of rye flour, that burek still needs to contain at least 20% filling, and that all baked goods must have clearly specified contents, which wasn’t the case with all products until now. It is precisely this type of specification that is the most important change introduced by the new regulation.

– The Regulation defines the required quality of grains, milling and bakery products and pasta, as well as the minimum quality requirements for wheat meant for human consumption, but also the names of the products in the market. Based on these prescribed names, it can be seen clearly what type of product is being offered, whereas other products, for which the names have not been defined, can use the common names accepted by consumers. If a new product is being placed in the market, its name is defined so that it is descriptive of the type of food and its use and clear enough so that the end consumers are aware of its features and are able to differentiate it from other products it might be mistaken for.

Enough time to prepare

Nenad Vujovic, the head of the Agricultural Inspection of the Republic of Serbia, recently said to the media that “this will be the first important step ahead in the state’s attempt to regulate the operations of 2,800 to 3,000 bakeries in Serbia”.

Still, the Regulation allows for a transition period until January 1, 2018, and the Ministry of Agriculture explains for eKapija that the reason for such a long deadline period is their desire to provide enough time for all the entities subject to the Regulation to prepare for its full implementation.

– This pertains especially to the methods of quality control, which are now fully in line with the methods of controlling the quality of grains, milling products and pasta implemented in other markets, above all in the EU markets. In addition to the methods prescribed by the Regulation, the quality parameters may be defined by the criteria in line with the regulations for metrology, pertaining above all to controlling quality parameters in the purchase of wheat. The introduction of additional parameters is a step ahead in the production and marketing of wheat and other grains – the Ministry says and notes that all of the above requires enough time for the producers and other participants in the market to prepare for bringing the production and processing in line with the quality parameters defined by the Regulation, whose contents can be found HERE.

Marko Andrejic

Ministarstvo poljoprivrede, šumarstva i vodoprivrede Republike Srbije

Regulation of the quality of grains milling and bakery products and pasta

bread

wheat

grains

rice

baked goods

pasta

flour

durum wheat

Nenad Vujovic

Agricultural Inspection of the Republic of Serbia

quality of grains

quality of milling products

quality of bakery products

bakery products

quality of pasta