Alert notices from RASFF concerning food

In this section we repeated alert notices from the RASFF system of the European commission issued in the previous month, which we thought to be noteworthy and of interest to our clients

In the meantime you  have recognized, that the monthly listing became longer and longer. A repetition in AGROLAB RADAR binds meanwhile many hours, so we decided to stop excerpting this information. In addition the alerts did not differ very much from month to month. The typical threats were also deriving from the known countries. Nuts, raisins and dried fruit with mycotoxin contamination from South of Europe and Middle East countries & USA, salmonella in chicken breast from South America, Poland, and numerous spices and seeds with salmonella, and always often a too high sulfite content in dried fruit from Turkey etc.

You can analyze the RASFF-site conveniently by yourself using several filter options and limit the notification to those which are of direct interest to your business.

We from AGROLAB^GROUP will screen the RASFF listing week by week also in future. From now on we will select and focus only a few really surprising or challenging findings in our opinion, that we will present in this section. Last month we found the following serious alerts noteworthy.

• Ethylene oxide/2-Chlorethanol: in food supplements from Germany and Sweden; in sauce (various) from Belgium; in fruit desserts from Germany;  in food supplements (HPMC capsules) from China; in Garcinia Cambogia (Malabar-Tamarinde) extract powder (2) from India;  in cereal premix from France, containing curry from India contaminated with ethylene oxide; Ethylene oxide in curry powder from India;  2-Chloroethanol in hulled sesame seeds from India; 2-chloroethanol in psyllium husk (Flohsamenschalen) from Germany; 2-Chloroethanol in sesame seeds from Nigeria, used in baking mixes from Germany; in raw material Citrus sinensis extract from China used in the manufacture of food supplements; in Stevia leaf powder from China;
  2-Chlorethanol in food supplements from the Netherlands; in muffin mix from Denmark, containing xanthan gum exceeding the MRL for ethylene oxide; 2-Chloroethanol in seasoning mix for spring rolls from the Philippines, via the Netherlands

• Heavy metals: mercury in thawed tuna (2.96+/-0.7 mg/kg; MRL 1 mg/kg) from Spain;
• Histamine: in fresh tuna notified by Italy (2)
• Hydrocyanic acid: in apricot kernels from Italy and Turkey;
• Iodine (too high content): in dried seaweed from China;
• Listeria monocytogenes: in dried sausages from France
• Mycotoxins: Ochratoxin A in paprika powder from Spain;
• PAH: Benzo(a)pyrene (42,7 µg/kg ; MRL: 5 µg/kg and PAH (sum) (233,3 µg/kg; MRL 30 µg/kg) in reduced fat cocoa powder from China
• Patulin: in organic apple juice from Germany;
• Pesticides: Chlorpyrifos (0,061 mg/kg  MRL 0,01) in all spice from Germany; Tetramethrin in dried porcini mushrooms from China;
• Salmonella: in black pepper from Brazil (3); in sesame seed from Ethiopia (2); in halva with pistachios from Syria and Greece; in cereal-based foods for infants and young children of unknown origin notified by Slovakia; 
• STEC (shigatoxin-producing Escherichia coli): STEC O103H2 in cheese “Valencay” from France; in cucumber salad from France, with raw material from Belgium;
• Sudan red: Sudan IV in palm oil from Ghana
• THC / CBD: unauthorised substance tetrahydrocannabinol (THC) and unauthorised Novel Food cannabidiol (CBD) in CBD oil notified by Luxembourg; Unsafe Level of Tetrahydrocannabinol (THC) in Novel Food CBD Food Supplement (2) notified by Ireland

The latest 40 pages “Annual report” of RASFF has been published. The summary is well illustrated by graphs and statistics that allow a good overview of the safety risks and quality threats in food business.
If you are interested you may download your copy under the following link: https://ec.europa.eu/food/system/files/2021-08/rasff_pub_annual-report_2020.pdf   

Link: https://webgate.ec.europa.eu/rasff-window/