Many aflatoxin alerts in RASFF portal

This is according to figures from the RASFF preliminary annual report 2016. RASFF notifications shown in the RASFF portal are so-called ‘original notifications’, representing a new case reported on a health risk detected in one or more consignments of a food or feed.

If we look at the total notifications per product category, we see that for feed additives, the EU had 3 requests for information for follow-up. For feed materials this was 79 and feed premixtures this was 2. In 2016, many notifications have been done for aflatoxins in the product category nuts, nut products and seeds. The contaminated products came from different counties around the world, as seen in the graphic below.

Other highlights of the report are that the Netherlands had 29 notifications for Salmonella in poultry meat and poultry meat products. Bulgaria notified RASFF 71 times for pesticide residues in fruits and vegetables.

About RASFF

Created in 1979, RASFF enables information to be shared efficiently between its members (EU-28 national food safety authorities, Commission, EFSA, ESA, Norway, Liechtenstein, Iceland and Switzerland) and provides a round-the-clock service to ensure that urgent notifications are sent, received and responded to collectively and efficiently. Thanks to RASFF, many food safety risks had been averted before they could have been harmful to European consumers.