Introduction: Tastings are one of the improvised ways of marketing food products, the main purpose of which is to present and thus offer the food to the general public. They can take place in a variety of presentation settings. The presentation of food in the form of tastings is not defined in the legislation. The conduct of tastings therefore presents several potential risk factors with regard to the safe supply of the food to the final consumer, due to the way in which they are carried out. Purpose: The aim of the survey is to analyse the knowledge of food hygiene and safety among tasting providers, the cleanliness of tasting providers' hands and the cleanliness of utensils and surfaces used in the work. Methods: In the first part a descriptive method was used to analyse and review the existing Slovene and foreign literature. In the second part, an observational and experimental study was used to obtain data, which were analysed accordingly to answer the questions posed. We analysed a food hygiene questionnaire including 33 pre/post-training questions, an observation sheet with different pre/post-training observation topics and a total of 99 swabs taken for cleanliness during the pre/post-training work process (60 hand swabs, 39 swabs of work utensils). Results: When analysing the questionnaire before the training, we find an average knowledge of food hygiene of 72.2% in both groups. After the training, we find that the knowledge of food hygiene increases to 87.7% in group 1 and to 91.2% in group 2. When comparing the two groups after the training, we find a more consistent behaviour with the principles of good hygiene practice, and we can confirm a statistical difference within the two groups (p=0.001). Meanwhile, we cannot confirm a statistical difference between the two groups after the training (p=0.155). For hand swabs, we find fewer non-compliant samples after training (10%) than before training (20%). For swabs for work utensils/accessories, we find more non-compliant samples after training (10%) than before training (5.3%). Discussion and conclusion: The results indicate a lack of training of tasting providers and improvised food service providers at all levels. The results highlight the need to establish appropriate hygienic and technical conditions regardless of the location of the food service and remind them of all the accompanying recommendations for safe food handling. Only a comprehensive treatment of the area of tasting can provide a starting point for a safe food offer to the final consumer.
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