What kind of formation in the multiethnic culture of the European Union of the third millennium?
Even though occidental food production and control systems guarantee a reasonable level of safety for consumers, western countries are facing a growing phenomenon of immigration from all over the world. With this enrichment and the shuffling of cultures and customs in the same places, even alimentary habits undergo an unavoidable evolution, also influencing the commercial trends of society. The growing demand for ethnic products, often of uncertain provenance, composition and manufacturing, has motivated the appearance of illegal trade and markets or improper local productions besides the legal ones, implying a rise in hygienic risks for the consumers. These underground realities, together with the unfilled gap that still exists between different cultures and customs cause significant difficulties in carrying out efficient controls to guarantee sanitary safety for consumers. For this reason, the risks associated with this increasing globalization must be faced with proper information and a decisive formative strategy must be divided, in order to allow the operator of the whole system and control employees to be acquainted about different raw materials, manufacturing systems, alimentary habits, languages for communication and commercial dynamics which stand beyond the new alimentary trends.
Gianfaldoni
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Department of Animal Pathology, Prophylaxis and Food Hygiene, University of Pisa, Pisa, Italy. dani@vet.unipi.it
Guidi
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D003254:Consumer Advocacy / Q000592:standards; D003431:Cross-Cultural Comparison; D005006:Ethnicity; D005062:European Union / Q000706:statistics & numerical data*; D005502:Food / Q000592:standards*; D005544:Forecasting; D006801:Humans; D006920:Hygiene / Q000592:standards*