A couple of weeks ago, 10 students, users of the "4. April" in Voždovac due to stomach problems, two of which were hospitalized. The incident once again raised the question: What are our students eating? How good is the food in the canteens?
Milica D. lives in Student town in New Belgrade, which has a capacity of 600 places, while up to 7.000 meals are distributed daily.
Canteen she has a good reputation in Studenjak, the students have only words of praise for her.
"The food is generally nice, but monotonous." I know exactly what day will be on offer, and it seems to me that the menu is not always the healthiest options", says Milica.
For breakfast, the menu includes hot dogs, jams, fried foods, burek, margarine, teas, yogurts, milk and various other products, as well as scrambled eggs.
Breakfast, he says, is a meal during which the canteen is mostly empty, because it is served until 10 in the morning.
Lunch, however, starts at 12, so many students eat breakfast.
"I don't like the layout of the meals in the canteen, they're all kind of close together." Dinner starts around 18 pm, and everyone knows that there is a rule in the canteen - the best food goes first. Therefore, whoever wants a quality dinner, must come among the first", she explains.
Asked to assess whether she is satisfied with the cleanliness in the canteen, and whether she thinks that the employees care enough about hygiene, our interlocutor says that "it all depends".
"It happened that I ran into dirty dishes, but rarely. This problem is a real rarity in Studenjak, but I heard that certain canteens, like "April 4" have a bigger problem with hygiene", concludes Milica.
Food poisoning on April 4
The story of our interlocutor is also confirmed by a review on Google that refers to the canteen of the "4. April", which is located in Gornji Voždovac, near the Faculty of Traffic, the Faculty of Organizational Sciences and the Faculty of Political Sciences.
"The canteen is a horror. The staff is rude, they throw chips, and the cooks don't know that Bolognese sauce just doesn't go well with baked potatoes... They complain about the fact that the canteen doesn't have any food," wrote one user.
At the end of September, 10 student users of the "4. April" due to stomach problems, two of which were hospitalized. The Institute for Student Health Protection stated that no bacterial food poisoning was found in the hospitalized patients.
The City Public Health Institute of Belgrade pointed out that the laboratory tests were carried out, and that it was common for all the patients that on September 14 and 15 they consumed meals prepared in the canteen of the Student Dorm "4. April".
The Student Polyclinic in Belgrade claims that the last time the student dormitory "4. April" in Voždovac on September 16, and that in those days around 320 to 350 portions per meal were prepared in the home, and that 10 of them came in with complaints, two of which were hospitalized in the inpatient unit.
"The tour followed the temporal and spatial grouping (afternoon and evening hours of September 15.09.2024, 10) of a total of XNUMX students from this dormitory who had gastrointestinal complaints. Then the City Public Health Institute of Belgrade was informed, which took over the epidemiological investigation," they stated in the answer.
The students, who were hospitalized, had all the symptoms of food poisoning - elevated body temperature, nausea, vomiting and diarrhea.
Narrowed selection, nutritionally poor food
Apart from hygiene, the question arises as to how healthy it is to eat in student canteens, especially if we take into account the fact that fried dishes like Wiener schnitzel and fried cheese are the main stars of student restaurants.
Nutritionist Anita Alterov talks about the fact that, in her opinion, the food in canteens is not of sufficient quality for the "Vremena" portal.
"It was similar when I was a student. Nothing seems to have changed since then. The food is not nutritionally rich enough in my opinion. There is too much fried food, which is full of trans-fats", explains the nutritionist.
In addition, he emphasizes that the meals are not varied enough, and that there are not enough vegetables in them, which are the main source of vegetable fibers.
"There is enough protein, they are extracted from meat, fish and cheeses." However, the problem is that white bread is served, and the snacks are mostly sweet and full of refined sugar", says Alterov.
Problems arise when someone decides, either for personal or health reasons, for a different diet. Vegetarians, vegans and people allergic to gluten have a very narrow choice of dishes in student restaurants.
"There are no allergen-free options in canteens, and today allergies are more and more widespread. The problem also exists when it comes to young people suffering from diabetes or insulin resistance. Apart from the fact that there are no options for them in the canteens, they don't even have the conditions to prepare their own food in the rooms," she says.
Belgrade canteens
There are 14 canteens in Belgrade, where up to five million meals are distributed annually.
Half have kitchens where food is prepared, while the other seven serve only as a dining area.
The largest canteen is located in the Studentski grad dormitory in New Belgrade, which has a capacity of 600 seats, while up to 7.000 meals are distributed daily.
They are followed by the student restaurant in the Karaburma dormitory, with 300 seats and 6.000 meals served per day, and the canteen in the King Aleksandar I dormitory on Zvezdara - Lola, where up to 4.000 meals are prepared per day.
The canteens near the Rifat Burdžović dormitory, also on Zvezdara, and the student restaurant Voždovac in the April 4 dormitory, while food is still being prepared in the student restaurants Košutnjak and Zemun (Žarko Marinović dormitory), are somewhat smaller in capacity.
Students can also dine in the canteens within the residence halls of Patris Lumumba on Zvezdara and Mika Mitrović on Voždovac, as well as in the student restaurants Obilićev venac and Đušina.
Within the Faculty of Pharmacy, Agriculture and Dramatic Arts, there are canteens Farmacija, Agronom and Glumac where you can only have breakfast and lunch.
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