Food recalls in EU – Week 6/2015

This week on the EU RASFF (Rapid Alert System for Food and Feed) we can find the following notifications:

1. Alerts followed by a recall from consumers:

– Additives and flavourings: undeclared sulphite (740 mg/kg – ppm) in dried apricots from Poland, following an official control on the market. Notified by United Kingdom;

– Pathogenic micro-organisms: Salmonella enteritidis in frozen minced meat from Poland, following a food poisoning. Notified by France;

– Pathogenic micro-organisms: Listeria monocytogenes (presence /25g) in sliced beef tongues from Belgium, with raw material from the Netherlands, following company’s own check. Notified by Belgium, distributed also to Luxembourg and United Kingdom.

2. Information for attention/for follow up followed by a recall from consumers:

None

3. Alerts followed by a withdrawal from the market:

– Residues of veterinary medicinal products: residue level above MRL for salinomycin (18.4 µg/kg – ppb) in frozen chicken from France, following company’s own check. Notified by Belgium, distributed also to Luxembourg;

– Suffocation risk as a result of the consumption (large pieces of pasta) of organic baby food from Germany, following company’s own check. Notified by Netherlands, distributed also to Belgium.

4. Seizures:

We have a seizure in Italy of frozen swordfish loins from Portugal containing mercury (1.6 mg/kg – ppm).

5. Border rejections:

• FCM: absence of certified analytical report for melamine kitchenware from Hong Kong
• absence of health certificate(s) for fig jam from Turkey
• aflatoxins (B1 = 42; Tot. = 55 µg/kg – ppb) in dried figs and diced dried figs (B1 = 19.7; Tot. = 33 µg/kg – ppb) from Turkey
• aflatoxins (B1 = 31 µg/kg – ppb) in nutmeg from Indonesia
• cyfluthrin (0.19 mg/kg – ppm) in strawberries from Egypt
• dead insects in groundnuts in shell from Egypt
• endosulfan II (0.25 mg/kg – ppm) and unauthorised substance carbofuran (0.029 mg/kg – ppm) in aubergines from the Dominican Republic
• fenvalerate (0.63 mg/kg – ppm) in beans from Bangladesh
• fosthiazate (0.056 mg/kg – ppm) in sweet peppers from Turkey
• groundnut kernels from Argentina infested with moulds
• improper health certificate(s) for groundnuts from Egypt
• orthophenylphenol (0.35 mg/kg – ppm) in tea from China
• Salmonella spp. (presence /25g) in betel leaves and sesame seeds from India
• too high content of sulphite (2848 mg/kg – ppm) in dried apricots from Turkey
• unauthorised novel food ingredient Dendrobium nobile in fruit punch from the United States
• unauthorised substance chlorfluazuron (0.056 mg/kg – ppm) in tea from Morocco
• unauthorised substance profenofos (0.027 mg/kg – ppm) in basmati rice from India
• unauthorised use of colour E 127 – erythrosine in strawberry flavoured cream biscuits from India