Abstract: Background:Ensuring food safety at home requests consumers knowledge and practices about good housekeeping practice and cold chain is part of it. Maintaining a required or declared storage temperature for perishable foodstuffs is a key parameter in preventing microbiological hazards, which can affect food safety and food quality. Objectives: 1.Food safety risk regarding cold chain maintaining in retail, the last step before foodstuffs reach consumers. 2. Food safety knowledge and practices, with an emphasis on the maintenance of a cold chain, among consumers in Ljubljana (capital of Slovenia) and surrounding areas. Methods: •Anonymous questionnaire. •Evaluation of temperature conditions in refrigerating units by five different temperature readouts and measurements. •Observation of shop assistants inclusion in work process. Results: Cold chain in retail is frequently broken as consequence of improper organization of work process, lack of shop assistants knowledge and unreliable supervision system of cool air temperature in cooling units. Cold chain principles are not respected by the majority of interviewed consumers. The results confirmed that the term ‘‘cold chain” is not well known among consumers. It was also shown that Slovenian as European consumers place the responsibility of maintaining a cold chain onto other parts of the food chain. Conclusions: Carefully planned and efficiently provided education of employees is of great importance. Lectures should be carried out by competent experts with relevant experience, who will provide specific information to every employee according to their assigned task. Results also point out the need upon reorganization of methods used for consumer education in way to stimulating them to think in terms of behavioral changes that result in positive influences on their quality of life.

Andrej Ovca¹, Mojca Jevšnik¹

¹University of Ljubljana, Faculty of Health Sciences, Department of Sanitary engineering

Keywords: Cold chain , Consumer , Food store