EU RASFF Notification: Non-compliant Products in June 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 and 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.

In June 2022, a total of 351 original notifications were sent through the RASFF Portal, among which 320 were food, 16 were feed and 15 were food contact material (FCM).

Notifications for food

Among all the 320 food products, fruit & vegetable accounted for the most cases (24%), followed by dietetic foods, food supplements & fortified foods (12%), poultry meat & poultry meat products (10%), nuts, nut products & seeds (8%), and fish and products thereof (7.5%).

Analysis of the top 5 categories with the most notifications

Among all the 77 notified fruit & vegetable products, the non-compliant reason of 60 products (78%) were related to pesticides, including unauthorized pesticide and exceeding the maximum residue level for pesticide. The non-compliant reasons of 10 products are related to contaminants like ochratoxin A, E. Coli, etc. Among the 77 products, 37 of them (48%) were from Turkey.
Around 40% of dietetic foods, food supplements & fortified foods are notified due to the finding of unauthorized substances, such as the unauthorized novel food ingredient cannabidiol (CBD), artemisinin, etc.
The presence of Salmonella spp. (91%) were the major reasons for the notification of poultry meat & poultry meat products. Among the 33 non-compliant products, 70% were from Poland.
As for the non-compliant reasons for nuts, nut products & seeds, 12 of them (44%) were related to aflatoxins and 7 (26%) related to Salmonella spp.
Among 24 fish & products thereof, 10 (42%) of the non-compliant reasons are related to mercury, and 6 (25%) related to poor temperature control.

Notifications for feed

Among all the 16 feed products, 11 of them were feed materials, 3 were pet food, and 2 were compound feed. Salmonella was the major non-compliant item, which accounted for 56%. Other non-compliant reasons include the detection of antibiotic residues, dioxins, etc.

Notifications for FCM

Among the 15 notified food contact materials, 12 of them are from China. Non-compliant reasons include unauthorised use of bamboo, the migration of primary aromatic amines, etc. Moreover, bisphenol A (3.727 mg/kg) was detected in Roussas Feta Cheese, originated from Greece.