SGS Provides Updates on EU’s Rapid Alert System for Food and Feed 2013 Annual Report

Hamburg, Germany, July 11, 2014 --(PR.com)-- Notification to the RASFF

The criteria for notification to the RASFF are provided in Article 50 of European Commission Regulation N° 178/2002. Whenever a member of the network has any information relating to the existence of a serious direct or indirect risk to human health deriving from food or feed, this information is immediately notified to the Commission under the RASFF. The Commission immediately transmits this information to the members of the network.

In 2013 a total of 3205 original notifications were transmitted through the RASFF, of which 596 were classified as alerts, 442 as information for follow up, 705 as information for attention and 1462 as border rejection notifications. 272 of the original notifications concerned feed (8.7%). These figures represent an 8.8% decrease in original notifications compared to 2012.

Notifications on Residues in Food

94 notifications concerned issues with veterinary drugs of which 9 concerned feed. In total, 43 different substances were reported. The amount of notifications for pesticides residues appears to have stabilized at 452, which is slightly more than the previous year. Only 2 of the notifications concerned feed, in particular maize. Of the 452 notifications only 36 are about produce of the EU.

Notifications on Food Pathogens

For the 642 notifications concerning pathogens, the notifications for Salmonella on poultry meat tripled in 2013. Salmonella was also the main pathogen reported on fruits and vegetables. The rise in bivalve mollusks is due to marine biotoxins, Norovirus, Salmonella and E.coli. Meat other than poultry notifications rose because of Shiga-toxin producing E.coli in chilled beef.

Finally in 2013, 53 food poisoning cases were recorded, an increase of 12 compared to 2012.

RASSF notifications top 10 in 2013 by country of origin are summarized in Table 1 (http://newsletter.sgs.com/eNewsletterPro/uploadedimages/000006/sgs-safeguards-12214-2013-annual-report-eus-rapid-alert-system-food-feed-published-a4-en-14.pdf) within the latest SafeGuards bulletin.

References:

- Rapid Alert System for Food and Feed (RASFF) - Annual report 2013 (http://ec.europa.eu/food/safety/rasff/docs/rasff_annual_report_2013.pdf)
- Food and Feed Safety Alerts - Criteria for notification to the RASFF (http://ec.europa.eu/food/food/rapidalert/index_en.htm)
- European Commission Regulation N° 178/2002 - Article 50 (http://eur-lex.europa.eu/LexUriServ/LexUriServ.do?uri=OJ:L:2002:031:0001:0024:EN:PDF)

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