EU RASFF Notification: Non-compliant Products in 2022

Background:

The Rapid Alert System for Food and Feed (RASFF) is a tool enabling the quick and effective exchange of information between the EU Member States and the EU Commission when risks to human and animal health are detected in the food or feed chain. RASFF notifications are so-called "original notifications", representing a new case is reported on a health risk detected in one or more food or feed consignments.

From January 1 to December 31, 2022, a total of 4,351 original notifications were sent through the RASFF Portal, among which 3,895 were food, 235 were feed and 221 were food contact material (FCM).

Data collected on January 5, 2023

Notifications for food

Among all the 3,895 food products, fruit & vegetable accounted for the most cases (21.3%), followed by nuts, nut products & seeds (12.3%), dietetic foods, food supplements & fortified foods (9.4%), poultry meat & poultry meat products (8.4%) and herbs & spices (7.7%).

Analysis of the top 5 categories with the most notifications

Among all the 831 notified fruit & vegetable products, the non-compliant reason of around 580 products (69.8%) were related to pesticide, including unauthorized pesticide and exceeding the maximum residue level for pesticide. To be more specific, around 250 products were related to the authorized substance chlorpyrifos & chlorpyrifos-methyl, which were banned by EU in 2019. In addition, the non-compliant reason of around 170 products under the same category was related to contaminants like ochratoxin A, aflatoxins, heavy metals, etc.
As for the non-compliant reasons for nuts, nut products & seeds, 258 of them (54%) were related to aflatoxins and 117 (24%) were related to Salmonella spp.
Around 66% of dietetic foods, food supplements & fortified foods were notified due to the finding of unauthorized substances, such as unauthorized novel food ingredient cannabidiol (CBD), Artemisia annua, etc. The non-compliant reasons for other products under this category were related to pesticide, excessive substance, contamination, etc.
The presence of Salmonella spp. (87%) was the major reason for the notification of poultry meat & poultry meat products. 57% of the notified poultry meat and products thereof were from Poland.
Among 300 herbs & spices, the non-compliant reasons of around 132 (44%) were related to contamination, especially the presence of Salmonella spp. Others were related to pesticides, unauthorized substances, insufficient labeling, etc.

Notifications for feed

Among all the 235 feed products, 169 were feed material, 43 were pet food, 13 were compound feed and 10 were feed additive and premixtures. Salmonella spp. was the major non-compliant item, which accounted for 45%. Other non-compliant reasons include the presence of non-approved feed additive CBD, aflatoxin, foreign matter, etc.

Notifications for FCM

Among the 221 notified food contact materials, 142 (64.2%) were from China. Non-compliant reasons include unauthorized use of bamboo (around 34%), the migration of primary aromatic amines (14%), the migration of lead (5%), etc.

Please note: the data analyzed in this article may be slightly different from the actual data due to manual collection, calculation and analysis. Data in the RASFF Window shall prevail.