Today, the European Commission published its 2021 report of the Alert and Cooperation Network which is composed of the Rapid Alert System for Food and Feed (RASFF), the Administrative Assistance and Cooperation system (AAC) and the Food Fraud Network (FFN). It is designed to facilitate the exchange of information and the cooperation on official controls in the agri-food chain between members of the network.
The report shows that 2021 recorded the highest number of exchanges ever reached, showing increased cooperation in Europe on the safety of food and feed.
The key points from the report are:
- 4607 notifications of health risks were transmitted through RASFF
- There were a total of 2290 Administrative Assistance and Cooperation notifications (non-compliances with the European Union agri-food chain legislation that do not present a health risk)
- 407 suspicions of fraud were also detected
- The highest number of notifications were for the presence of Ethylene Oxide – 468 notifications
- Unsurprisingly, as a result, pesticides were the most important hazard notified at 1231, a 61% increase on 2020
- More surprising to us was that the highest number of Food Fraud notifications were related to the illegal movement of cats and dogs! However, these were not destined for the food chain, these were typically pets being moved without the proper, or counterfeit, paperwork.
- The growth in food being sold online also features with 281 RASFF notifications relating to e-commerce.
- Half of notifications about products traded online concerned dietetic foods, food supplements and fortified foods, followed by food contact material, reported in one third of the notifications
To download the report click here
