The RASFF celebrates his 35 years launching a new service and publishing the 2013 Annual Report. Launched in June 2014, the RASFF consumers’ portal is a consumer-friendly internet tool providing latest information on food recall notices. It includes also public health warnings issued by food safety authorities and food companies. By using this free tool, EU consumers are able to identify food that has been flagged in the system allowing them to make more informed choices. By selecting any EU country, the user can view the list of recent notices provided by member countries or business operators on consumer recalls. The information can be consulted in the “Published” section of the portal. After a four week period, notifications will be removed from portal. Portal features will be further developed and improved based on users’ feedback.
What about the report? Here some key features:
- In 2013, a total of 3.205original notifications were transmitted, of which 596 alert, 442 information for follow up, 705 information for attention and 1.462 border rejections;
- Overall decreasing of the notifications: 4,9 %. It is the first year that we face a decreasing in the last decade;
- Italy is the top notifying country (534). About the country of origin most issues come from China (433), India (257), Turkey (226), Brazil and Spain (187) and Poland (163).The Commission rejected 231 notifications because RASFF notifications’ criteria were not met. It is an increasing of 245% compared to 2012;
- More info about the “horsemeat scandal” and why the Commission used the RASFF although there were doubts about the serious risk for human health;
- Between the case study you can read more about the hepatitis A virus in frozen berry mixes from Italy, with raw material from Bulgaria, Canada, Poland and Serbia;
- Aflatoxins notifications are consistently decreasing, food supplements from third countries are certain an emerging problem.
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