2016 Annual Report of the RASFF Rapid Alert System published
Dec 12, 2017 - Foods
2016 Annual Report of the RASFF Rapid Alert System published
In the European Rapid Alert System for Food and Feed (RASFF), various notifications are published based on Article 50 of the EU General Food Law Regulation 178/2002. This system was introduced by the EU to provide European control authorities with relevant information on risks and hazards associated with food and feed more quickly, allowing authorities to act more swiftly to prevent health hazards or other serious harm to consumers whenever possible.
There are different types of notifications, such as:
- Alert notifications
- Information notifications
- Rejections at border controls
To gain an overview of the most important potential health hazards or food safety aspects, it is most sensible to evaluate the alert notifications in the RASFF annual report.
Below is a summary of the alert notifications from EU countries in 2016:
- 28% of all notifications in RASFF are alert notifications (847 alert notifications in 2016)
- among the alert notifications, pathogenic microorganisms are the most common cause (352 of 847 notifications (42%))
- other causes for alert notifications include, for example, allergens, foreign objects, mycotoxins, pesticides, histamine…
- Salmonella was the most frequently reported pathogen (170 of 352 notifications (48%)). Contaminated eggs and poultry meat were also a major cause of salmonellosis
- Listeria monocytogenes remained a frequent cause of alert notifications in 2016. Affected foods included, for example, smoked salmon, raw milk cheese, as well as meat and sausage products.
- pathogenic Escherichia coli (including STEC/EHEC) were reported in cheese and raw sausage, for example
- noroviruses in live oysters and Campylobacter in poultry meat also triggered several alert notifications
- in the "foreign object alert notifications," pieces or parts of metal, plastic, glass, but also insects, were often the causes (106 of 847 notifications (13%)). Affected foods frequently included cereal products (cereals, flours,…), bakery products, ready meals, fruits and vegetables, as well as milk and dairy products.
- milk, soy, gluten, nuts, and sulfites accounted for slightly more than half of all allergen-triggered alert notifications by percentage. A total of 107 out of 847 alert notifications were due to allergens (13%)
- for heavy metals, alerts concerning mercury in swordfish played a dominant role. Lead and cadmium were reported only in rare cases. Overall, it was 10% of the cases (88 out of 847 notifications).
- mycotoxins were the cause of alert notifications in 6% of the cases (53 out of 847 notifications). The largest share was caused by aflatoxins and ochratoxin A. Fumonisins, deoxynivalenol (DON), and citrinin occurred significantly less frequently
Overall, a slight increase in alert notifications has been observed in recent years. Detailed information can be found at: ec.europa.eu.
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