Journalists from Albania, Bosnia-Herzegovina, Bulgaria, Croatia, Macedonia, Moldova, Montenegro, Romania, Serbia and Slovenia examined various aspects of food safety coverage with international and Hungarian experts and fellow journalists during the study tour from 4 to 8 March, 2008 in Hungary. The study tour was organized by the Center for Independent Journalism, Budapest (CIJ) as a part of a six-month project „Reporting on food safety, a public health issue”.
The study tour journalists provided journalists with an opportunity to explore the complexity of food safety issues in relation to public health, basic consumer rights and the right to access public information. Through presentations and discussions, journalists learnt about various aspects of food safety regulation, monitoring, food science, communication and strategy, consumer consciousness, challenges of globalization, and a number of other important problems. During the field trips to Egerfood Regional Center Research in Eger and later Univer Babyfood Plant in Kecskemet, participants could learn about new research results of food traceability methods and and various aspects of food processing regarding safety and quality standards.
Journalists also delivered presentations identifying major food safety problems and challenges of covering food safety in their own countries. At the end of the study tour they formulated their conclusions about common or country specific problems of food safety situation in South East Europe and completed the draft of their recommendations on food safety coverage.