40th anniversary of the RASFF network: 2018 annual report

The European Commission has published the 2018 annual report on the Rapid Alert System for Food and Feed (RASFF). Data on notifications from EU countries have been analyzed and showed by country, type of food and hazard.

Notifications are divided into different categories.

During 2018, out of 3699 notifications, 1118 were classified as "alert", indicating a serious risk to health and involving rapid interventions by operators or Food Authorities.

The largest number of notifications concerns microorganisms (979), mycotoxins (655) and pesticide residues (276) found in products from third countries.

On the other hand, a significant number of outbreaks of Listeria monocytogenes related to frozen corn, in several European Community countries, were reported. Only a small percentage of the notifications concerned feed (9%) and materials in contact with food (4%), in line with the values of previous years.

The RASFF has proved to be an efficient tool for tracing the affected products and removing them from the market. Moreover, in the last years there was an increase of the active participation by Member States.

Health Commissioner Vytenis Andriukaitis emphasized that 2019 marks the 40th anniversary of RASFF, which is "recognized globally as a crucial tool to guarantee the security of the European food market".

Born in 1979, the RASFF is officially established with the Regulation (EC) n. 178/2002, which lays down the principles and general requirements of food legislation, establishes the European Food Safety Authority (EFSA) and lays down procedures in the field of food safety.

The RASFF allows the sharing of different information (i.e. microbiological risks, chemical residues and others) among its members (National Food Safety Authorities, Commission, EFSA, ESA, Norway, Liechtenstein, Iceland and Switzerland) guaranteeing an active 24 hours service. Notifications are sent, received and processed immediately and efficiently, allowing a quick withdrawn of products from the market when necessary.

Furthermore, to give greater booster to the system, the Information Control System for Official Controls (IMSOC) will be implemented in RASFF. In fact, as required by the new Regulation on official controls (Regulation (EU) 2017/625) the IMSOC will be dedicated to the integrated functioning of the mechanisms and tools through which data, information and documents, relating to official controls and other official activities, are automatically processed and exchanged.

Reference

http://www.izslt.it/2019-40-anniversario-della-rete-rasff/

https://www.anmvioggi.it/rubriche/europa/68543-rasff-crescono-le-notifiche-di-allerta-rapida.html

https://sivemp.it/relazione-annuale-rasff-2018/

2018 annual report (English)