Food fraud is one of the long-standing causes of scandals attracting particular attention for a long time. This study aimed to monitor food fraud in the European Union and to identify the relationships among the countries where the cases were reported, adulterated commodities (seafood, eggs, milk, meat, fish, and their products) and types of fraud. The secondary data were covered by the survey focused on consumer knowledge about fraudulent activities, ingredient substitution, masking of origin, mislabeling, placing on the market of foods not fit for human consumption within Slovak inhabitants. Primary and secondary data were used to achieve this aim. Primary data were obtained from the Food Fraud and Quality Knowledge Center (KCFFQ) and secondary data from the questionnaire survey from 354 respondents. During the period from 2017 to 2019, 163 cases of food fraud were reported, most of which originated from Italy and mainly concerned fish and fish products. Based on primary data and one-way ANOVA statistical tests, we confirmed five hypotheses. There was found no statistical impact of the country on the type of food fraud (
Adulteration in food has been a concern since the beginning of civilization, as it not only decreases in the quality of food products but also results in several ill effects on health. Authenticity testing of food and adulterant detection of various food products is required for value assessment and to assure consumer protection against fraudulent activities. Concerns about food safety and regulation have ensured the development of various techniques such as physical, biochemical/immunological, and molecular techniques, for adulterations detection in food (
The Knowledge Centre for Food Fraud and Quality provides and shares up-to-date scientific knowledge on food fraud and food quality issues. It coordinates market surveillance activities and operates early warning and information system for food fraud. Collectively is operated by the European Commission's science and knowledge service, the Joint Research Centre (JRC), and the Departments regulating the feed-food chain and protecting consumer rights. The Centre complements the activities of the EU Food Fraud Network, which is operated by the European Commission Department for Health and Food Safety (
The first objective of this study was to monitor the food fraud focused mainly on the food of animal origin in member states of the European Union and to identify the most common reasons for these cases. The following hypotheses concerning food fraud were set up as follows:
Hypothesis 1: We assume no statistical evidence of the country's impact on food frauds, which were reported.
Hypothesis 2: We assume statistical evidence of the country's impact on counterfeit foodstuff.
Hypothesis 3: We assume no statistical evidence between the countries and year when the food fraud cases were reported.
Hypothesis 4: We assume statistical evidence between adulteration of food and the year of its occurrence.
Hypothesis 5: We assume statistical evidence between the type of food fraud and year of its occurrence.
The second objective was to find out consumer awareness in Slovakia regarding their knowledge and opinion on food fraud.
The objective of this paper was achieved by using and processing of primary and secondary data. Primary data were obtained from the Knowledge Centre for Food Fraud and Quality (KCFFQ) which is hosted by the Joint Research Centre (JRC), during the period 2017 – 2019. The records were obtained using the portal contained information about:
the reporting country, the food commodities, categories of food fraud, accurate case information.
The data obtained became the basis for confirming or rejecting hypotheses.
Secondary data were obtained using the survey focused on identifying consumers' awareness of food fraud in the Slovak Republic. The questionnaire was performed at a sample of 354 respondents in the 2019 year, using the Google Forms platform. The respondents were diversified into 2 categories in terms of gender and age. Women were represented by the amount of 278 (78.5%). The men were represented by 76 respondents (21.5%). Group was also divided into four groups based on their age. The age structure consisted as follows: from 16 to 21 years (13.3%), from 22 to 30 years (41.2%), from 31 to 45 years it was 27.1% and from 46 to 70 it was 18.4%. Questions about which commodities are most often adulterated, which types of food fraud occur most often, in which countries they think food fraud is the most commonly reported, and from what media they get this information was given to respondents.
The collected data were processed using the statistical program XLSTAT (Addinsoft, version 2019.1.2) The formulated hypotheses were tested using the one-way ANOVA statistical test. Hypotheses were tested: if the
Food safety is one of the crucial issues of public health protection (
By evaluating food fraud notifications at KCFFQ during years from 2017 to 2019, we found 163 notifications reported to the KCFFQ system (Table
An overview of food frauds in 2017 – 2019 in the order in which they were reported.
Country | Commodity | Food fraud | Details |
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Italy | fish and fish products | mislabelling | incorrect labeling of fish during the Christmas period |
Italy | fish and fish products | mislabelling | fish were not traceable |
Italy | fish and fish products | artificial enhancement | dyeing low quality tuna to sell it as fresh fish |
Italy | milk and milk products | counterfeit | counterfeiting of mozzarella (discovery of labels of a well-known dairy company stored along with cow milk from other companies) |
UK | meat and meat products | substitution | selling turkey instead of halal lamb |
Italy | milk and milk products | artificial enhancement | spoilt milk was treated with caustic soda to mask acidification and aging |
Italy | milk and milk products | Substitution | replacement of buffalo milk for cow's milk |
Italy | milk and milk products | artificial enhancement | smoked Provolone cheese with cardboard and printed and glued paper leaflets. |
Spain | seafood | mislabelling | no records of octopus traceability |
UK | meat and meat products | origin masking | claimed their lamb products had been 'Produced in Britain' but in fact contained traces of imported New Zealand meat |
Italy | meat and meat products | origin masking | using inappropriate animals to produce the cured ham and forging documents to reconstruct the traceability of the meat |
Netherland | meat and meat products | substitution | sold horse meat as beef |
Netherland | fish and fish products | substitution | endangered shark found in several fish products |
Italy | eggs | origin masking | declaration of origin and other labelling information were missing |
Italy | fish and fish products | mislabelling | lack of or incomplete informations about traceability |
Italy | fish and fish products | mislabelling | untraceable fish products |
Italy | seafood | mislabelling | untraceable seafood products |
Spain | fish and fish products | mislabelling | lack of traceability and proper labelling |
Slovakia | meat and meat products | products not fit for consumption | meat coming from Brazil contaminated with |
Portugal | milk and milk products | mislabelling | untraceable fozen goat milk |
Italy | fish and fish products | mislabelling | mislabelling and traceability problem |
Italy | eggs | mislabelling | absence of labelling, making it impossible to determine the origin of the eggs |
Italy | fish and fish products | mislabelling | mislabelling juvenile fishe |
Italy | fish and fish products | illegal equipment | use of illegal equipment and catch of juvenile fishe |
Spain | fish and fish products | mislabelling | lack informations or mislabelling of origin |
Italy | milk and milk products | origin masking | doubts about the true origin of dairy products |
Italy | meat and meat products | substitution | sale of pork sausages instead of advertised wild boar and deer sausages |
Italy | fish and fish products | substitution | red tuna was substituted by Yellowfin tuna and grouper was replaced by cheaper Nile perch in restaurant |
Spain | meat and meat products | substitution | adding pig meat, soy and bread to their beef burgers and meatballs |
An overview of food frauds in 2017 – 2019 in the order in which they were reported.
Country | Commodity | Food fraud | Details |
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Portugal | meat and meat products | products not fit for consumption | lack of veterinary controls; lack of traceability; expired food relabelled with a new expiry date |
Italy | fish and fish products | mislabelling | mislabelling of fish |
Italy | fish and fish products | substitution | bluefin tuna was sold as a cheaper Albacore fish |
Spain | meat and meat products | products not fit for consumption | distributing horse meat (horses were too old or labelled as "unfit for consumption") |
Belgium | meat and meat products | products not fit for consumption | distributing horse meat (horses were too old or labelled as "unfit for consumption") |
Italy | food | mislabelling | selling frozen food in restaurant without properly informations on the menu |
Italy | fish and fish products | products not fit for consumption | expired and/or unlabelled products |
Italy | eggs | mislabelling | traceability problems |
UK | meat and meat products | substitution | horse meat and regular beef were sold as 100% beef |
Italy | eggs | contamination | high levels of fipronildetected |
Netherland | eggs | contamination | high levels of fipronil detected |
Belgium | eggs | contamination | high levels of fipronil detected |
Germany | eggs | contamination | high levels of fipronil detected |
United Kingdom | fish and fish products | mislabelling | labels of other companies were used to by-pass the Russian law limiting the number of UK exporters |
Italy | milk and milk products | origin masking | cheese were produced in unregistered places, labelled with incorrect information and entered fraudulently the Fontina DOP production chain |
Italy | fish and fish products | mislabelling | unlabelled fish products |
Italy | milk and milk products | origin masking | dairy farms were not accredited for the production of cheese with a protected origin and re-used old labels to pass the product as authentic |
Spain | fish and fish products | artificial enhancement | the nitrites contained in the vegetables give the tuna a bright red colour making it appear fresher |
Italy | milk and milk products | origin masking | labelling rules concerning claims made on the geographical origin and/or being organic were falsed claims |
Italy | fish and fish products | mislabelling | unlabelled fish and molluscs |
Italy | food | mislabelling | food without any traceability |
Italy | fish and fish products | mislabelling | problems of traceability and compliance to mandatory labelling |
Spain | fish and fish products | mislabelling | untraceable and unlabelled tuna |
Italy | meat and meat products | mislabelling | of poor hygiene and non-traceability distibuted to schools, hospitals and military canteens |
Italy | eggs | mislabelling | 3.5 million eggs were found to be untraceable |
Italy | fish and fish products | mislabelling | fish were found with irregularities concerning the labelling and traceability |
Spain | fish and fish products | artificial enhancement | dyeing low quality tuna to sell it as fresh fish |
Italy | fish and fish products | mislabelling | mislabelling of fish |
Italy | fish and fish products | substitution | Bluefin tuna was sold as a cheaper Albacore fish |
Italy | fish and fish products | mislabelling | health inspection, origin, date of freezing and traceability documentation were missing |
Italy | milk and milk products | mislabelling | untraceable products in the food chain |
An overview of food frauds in 2017 – 2019 in the order in which they were reported.
Country | Commodity | Food fraud | Details |
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Spain | seafood | mislabelling | the origin of the product could not be determined as the mandatory labelling was missing |
Spain | fish and fish products | mislabelling | fish that could not be traced |
Spain | fish and fish products | substitution | restaurants were selling other types than those on offer (replaced by sole, hake and bluefin tuna) |
Italy | fish and fish products | mislabelling | sale of frozen foodstuffs as fresh food of incorrect Italian origin |
Italy | meat and meat products | origin masking | sale of frozen foodstuffs as fresh food of incorrect Italian origin |
United Kingdom | meat and meat products | substitution | lamb meat (animal <12 months) has been replaced by mutton meat (older animal) |
Italy | fish and fish products | origin masking | the shellfish was not traceable and the documentation of origin was missing |
Italy | milk and milk products | mislabelling | Untraceable food |
Italy | fish and fish products | mislabelling | Untraceable food |
Belgium | meat and meat products | mislabelling | minced meat witch the expiry dates of the products were falsified |
Spain | seafood | origin masking | Portugal clams were sold as Galician clams |
Belgium | meat and meat products | substitution | conventional meat were sold as organic meat |
Italy | food | origin masking | the traceability documentation were missing |
Spain | meat and meat products | products not fit for consumption | freezing products; adding warm water, viscera and pork blood to cows to increase body weight; the product has expired 3 years ago and products contaminated with S |
Italy | meat and meat products | origin masking | improper marketing of meat with registered trade mark |
Ireland | meat and meat products | products not fit for consumption | horse meat imported from eastern countries were unfit for human consumption; sold without true evidence on the Irish market |
Italy | fish and fish products | products not fit for consumption | distribution of expired ten tonnes of frozen fish |
Italy | meat and meat products | counterfeit | Danish Duroc boars have been used instead of Italian pig breeds for insemination purposes to reduce the fat content of the hams produced |
Italy | fish and fish products | mislabelling | lack of appropriate traceability documentation for tuna, salmon and other types of fish |
Italy | fish and fish products | mislabelling | lack of appropriate traceability documentation for fish products |
Italy | fish and fish products | products not fit for consumption | use low quality fish to prepare sushi and sashimi; offered frozen fish that have expired |
France | fish and fish products | products not fit for consumption | fillets were sold as fresh fish, although they were actually frozen |
France | fish and fish products | artificial enhancement | use of unauthorized additives to improve the red color of tuna |
France | fish and fish products | artificial enhancement | salt, potassium lactate, potassium acetate, citric acid and polyphosphate were used to retaining water |
Italy | milk and milk products | mislabelling | the product was not made with PDO cheese from Bergamo as indicated on the label |
Belgium | meat and meat products | products not fit for consumption | poultry meat with a counterfeit expiry date were sold |
Italy | meat and meat products | origin masking | counterfeiting ham with PDO San Daniele |
An overview of food frauds in 2017 – 2019 in the order in which they were reported.
Country | Commodity | Food fraud | Details |
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United Kingdom | eggs | mislabelling | the sale of eggs at high prices whilst they were free range eggs that did not actually meet the criteria |
Italy | milk and milk products | substitution | false mozzarella di bufala DOP and other type of cheese were sold to tourists |
Spain | meat and meat products | products not fit for consumption | ham and other types of meat that were expired, were re-labelled and re-introduced into the market |
Italy | food | substitution | substitution of organic products by conventionally produced products; lack of hygiene and traceability of the products |
Italy | food | products not fit for consumption | rotten foods, in some cases after the expiry date was relabelled and intended to be offered for sale |
Spain | meat and meat products | mislabelling | the hams in the packages were sold with a changed expiration date or were rotten |
Italy | fish and fish products | products not fit for consumption | defrosted fish placed on the market from a fishing shop that did not meet the hygiene conditions laid down by law were seized |
Portugal | meat and meat products | products not fit for consumption | found rotten meat stored under unsuitable conditions |
Italy | fish and fish products | products not fit for consumption | part of the fish was supposed to be sold fresh, but in fact it was rotten |
Spain | fish and fish products | smuggling | endangered Spanish eel species smuggled into Japan via China |
Italy | fish and fish products | mislabelling | fish were found without traceability documents |
Spain | fish and fish products | artificial enhancement | fish that was caught by boats not equipped with the appropriate freezers were treated with additives to mimic the appearance of fresh fish |
Spain | fish and fish products | counterfeit | canned tuna were sold as fresh tuna |
Italy | fish and fish products | products not fit for consumption | fish in a restaurant was not fit for human consumption |
Italy | food | mislabelling | mislabeling and missing food traceability documents |
United Kingdom | meat and meat products | substitution | meat products were sold and produced from unspecified meat (the species was not mentioned on the label) |
Italy | food | products not fit for consumption | meat and fish unfit for human consumption were sold in a restaurant |
Italy | meat and meat products | counterfeit | ham was not produced according to the mandatory compliance process to be labelled as "Crudo di Parma" |
Italy | fish and fish products | products not fit for consumption | non-compliance with hygiene regulations for the storage and handling of fish in markets and restaurants |
Italy | milk and milk products | counterfeit | cheese sold with the false labels of the Pecorino Crotonese PDO cheese |
Ireland | meat and meat products | mislabelling | minced meat without proper labelling |
Ireland | meat and meat products | substitution | meat from species not declared on the label. Lamb was most frequently replaced by meat from other spices and cow was the most commonly undeclared species |
United Kingdom | meat and meat products | mislabelling | selling meat labelled as the "Best of British" when actually it was sourced from abroad. |
Italy | fish and fish products | mislabelling | found 500 kg of untraceable fish |
United Kingdom | meat and meat products | substitution | selling beef as lamb in restaurant |
An overview of food frauds in 2017 – 2019 in the order in which they were reported.
Country | Commodity | Food fraud | Details |
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Italy | fish and fish products | mislabelling | restaurants were indicted for selling frozen fish as fresh. |
Spain | meat and meat products | substitution | restaurants in Madrid did not correspond to the species indicated on the menu |
Italy | fish and fish products | mislabelling | lack of traceability information |
Italy | fish and fish products | products not fit for consumption | non-respect of the expiry date and lack of adequate storage conditions |
Italy | milk and milk products | substitution | mozzarella, sold in Spain and claimed to be produced using buffalo milk was made mostly with cow milk |
Belgium | meat and meat products | mislabelling | meat sold in Belgium under the quality mark Belbeef lacks traceability |
Italy | food | substitution | conventional food were labelled as "organic"; in some fields the company produced food respecting the rules of organic production, while on other fields food was produced with the use of pesticides, herbicides, etc. |
Italy | milk and milk products | counterfeit | "Grana Padano" and "Parmiggiano" were sold in Canada making fraudulent use of the label "made in Italy". |
Italy | milk and milk products | substitution | sale of false mozzarella di bufala DOP |
Italy | milk and milk products | substitution | mixing cow and buffalo milk to produce the popular Italian cheese and sold it under the label "mozzarella di bufala". |
Italy | meat and meat products | origin masking | sold meat labelled as Italian which rather was the meat of animals grown in other countries, mostly Spain and France |
Italy | fish and fish products | artificial enhancement | a large amount of bleach was found in a food production plant |
Italy | seafood | products not fit for consumption | octopus, sepia and squid with expiry dates in 2010 were withdrawn from the market |
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Malta | meat and meat products | origin masking | Imported live animals were slaughtered but labelled as originating from Malta |
Poland | meat and meat products | products not fit for consumption | captured meat from sick cows killed in a Polish slaughterhouse which was not fit for human consumption |
United Kingdom | fish and fish products | substitution | fish and chips restaurants sold protected spiny dogfish and some other protected types of shark, which commercialization is forbidden in Europe |
Netherland | eggs | products not fit for consumption | eggs contaminated with fipronil |
Netherland | eggs | mislabelling | according to the labels the eggs came from a farm that produced "free range" eggs but this information turned out to be false |
Italy | eggs | mislabelling | missing traceability information of 4 000 g eggs |
Spain | meat and meat products | origin masking | hams which were not designated as PDOs were referred to as PDO hams |
Spain | fish and fish products | mislabelling | sale of canned tuna as fresh tuna |
Italy | eggs | mislabelling | sale of food commodities fraudulently labeled as organic |
Italy | fish and fish products | mislabelling | selling cheaper fish at a much more expensive price to restaurants |
Italy | eggs | mislabelling | lacking traceability information |
An overview of food frauds in 2017 – 2019 in the order in which they were reported.
Italy | food | origin masking | food was labelled as Italian but it came from another country |
Italy | food | products not fit for consumption | food that did not meet the required hygienic conditions was on offer |
United Kingdom | milk and milk products | substitution | buffalo mozzarella sold in restaurants and supermarkets, was made wholly or partly from cow's milk |
Italy | milk and milk products | counterfeit | cheese was labelled as a Protected Geographical Indication (PGI) product without fulfilling the requirements; counterfeited cheese was found |
Italy | milk and milk products | products not fit for consumption | the cheese was found after a few months, stored under inappropriate conditions |
France | meat and meat products | substitution | meat patties made in Poland contained fat, skin, starch and soya which are not allowed for this type of product |
Italy | eggs | products not fit for consumption | the eggs had an extended expiration date in the pack-house |
Italy | meat and meat products | mislabelling | hams do not fulfil the requirements to bear the PDO label |
Italy | meat and meat products | substitution | hams did not comply with the requirements to bear the PDO labels |
Italy | seafood | mislabelling | lacked appropriate information to trace the product |
United Kingdom | meat and meat products | mislabelling | some species were declared on the label but in reality were not present in the product, for instance, ham without pork |
Belgium | meat and meat products | substitution | meat conventionally produced, and originating from the Netherlands was labelled and sold in Belgium as organic meat |
Spain | meat and meat products | products not fit for consumption | meat was contaminated with |
Spain | meat and meat products | mislabelling | meat producer sold contaminated meat to a second company, which in turn sold it without indicating on the label the name of the producing company |
France | meat and meat products | dilution | fraudulent increase of the weight of chicken meat with water |
Spain | meat and meat products | origin masking | meat sold as lamb in Burgos is from other countries |
Italy | eggs | mislabelling | organic eggs were from hens in cages |
Italy | food | products not fit for consumption | found rotten fish not fit for human consumption |
Italy | meat and meat products | counterfeit | butcher sold regular beef as Japanese Kobe beef |
Portugal | meat and meat products | products not fit for consumption | meat not fit for human consumption was sold |
Portugal | meat and meat products | mislabelling | products that lacked traceability information and did not fulfil administrative requirements |
Portugal | meat and meat products | products not fit for consumption | meat was not stored at the right temperature |
Portugal | meat and meat products | artificial enhancement | samples contained sulphite, a substance which addition to meat is forbidden |
Italy | fish and fish products | mislabelling | fish did not fulfil the legal traceability requirements |
Italy | food | mislabelling | some items had a PDO labelling although they did not fulfil the required criteria |
France | meat and meat products | products not fit for consumption | rotten meat without traceability |
Italy | fish and fish products | mislabelling | sale of food commodities fraudulently labeled as organic |
The next year 2018, showed the highest amount of notifications for the whole observed period, namely 72.
In 2019 there were found 31 reports. In Slovakia, no notification of food fraud was reported in the year 2018 and 2019. Reports of food fraud in each country from 2017 to 2019 in Europe are shown in Figure
Country in Food Fraud Reports from 2017 to 2019 in Europe.
Regarding the particular problems found in our evaluation, we can see several kinds of foods reported as the problem with traceability (from Italy, Spain, Portugal, France, etc.). For example, Italy reported at 3.5 mil. eggs, that they were found to be untraceable.
Food or feed which is launched to the market shall be adequately labelled or identified to facilitate its traceability, through relevant documentation or information in accordance with the relevant requirements of more specific provisions.
By the
In samples of eggs, fipronil contamination was reported from several countries. Fipronil is an insecticide of the phenylpyrazoles class and an active ingredient of one of the popular ectoparasiticide veterinary products. Fipronil is also formulated as insect bait for roaches, ants, and termites; as a spray for pets. In humans, poisoning is mainly due to accidental ingestions or suicidal attempts. In agriculture, fipronil is widely used for soil treatment, seed coating, and crop protection (
The increasing consumer demand for organic products caused the organic food market has expanded in all continents of the world. Organic foods represent a specific segment of the food market (
By our results found at the market, we can agree with the statement of
There were reported several problems regarding the PDO label. EU quality policy aims at protecting the names of specific products to promote their unique characteristics, linked to their geographical origin as well as traditional know-how. By the
Hypothesis 1 did not assume a link in the country's impact on food fraud. Based on the one-way ANOVA test, this hypothesis was confirmed (
Food scandals that happened in recent years have increased consumers’ risk perceptions of foods and decreased their trust in food safety. A better understanding of consumer trust in food safety can improve the effectiveness of public policy and allows the development of the best practice in risk communication (
Among 354 respondents who participated in our questionnaire survey, 221 respondents (62.4%) replied to the first question concerning the commodity, that they believe to be the most adulterated is meat and meat products, which is partially in agreement with our results. Some respondents (26.02%) decided on milk and dairy products. Other commodities represented less than 10% (Figure
The answer to the question „which commodities are mostly adulterated?“.
The safety of milk has always been challenged due to the illegal use of preservatives and adulterants such as hydrogen peroxide, salicylic acid, benzoic acid, water, neutralizers, melamine, and so on (
At the question of which of the following causes of food fraud occur most often, respondents could select two options. 226 people (63.7%) decided for substitution, 142 people (40%) for mislabelling and 136 people (38.3%) for origin masking. Also, these results are partially in agreement with our results. Other types of adulteration received less than 100 votes (Figure
The answer to the question „which of the following causes of food fraud occur most often?“.
The answer to the question „in which of these countries are food frauds reported mostly?“
EU citizens have the right to be protected from fraudulent practices and to receive accurate information about the food they choose to purchase (
So the last question was given about where your information is coming from 188 people (53.11%) select the Internet source and 141 (39.83%) the television source. Radio and newspaper as the source had the lowest number of votes (Figure
The answer to the question „from which media do you often receive information about food fraud“
The present work was focused on the current problems related to food fraud in the European Union countries. We have established hypotheses and confirmed their correctness. Of the total number of 163 cases during the period from 2017 to 2019 registered in KCFFQ, the most reported cases were in Italy and Spain. The most common commodities covered by these reports were fish and their products and meat and meat products. As the most common cause of food fraud was mislabelling. Based on confirmed hypotheses, we conclude that it is not statistically conclusive that the country has an influence on what type of fraud was performed but it has shown the link between the country and the food that has been adulterated. Also, there was no statistically confirmed correlation between countries and years when cases were reported, but a statistically significant correlation between years, commodities and the types of fraud that were reported. The results achieved in the evaluation of the responses from the individual questionnaires and the KCFFQ data indicate some level of information about food fraud topics. These results can be used as a basis for further investigation.
This work was supported by grant of the Slovak Research and Development Agency under the Treaty no. „APVV-17-0508" and KEGA no.017SPU-4/2019.