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.

• Antibiotics: Chloramphenicol in pork casings from China;
• Bacillus cereus (Enterotoxin-producing strain): in food supplement from United Kingdom;
• Ethylene oxide/2-Chlorethanol: Withdrawal of food supplement from Spain containing locust bean gum from Turkey excceeding the MRL for ethylene oxide; in puffed rice from India; in capsules used in the manufacture of food supplements notified by France; in organic bamboo extract from India; in cumin seeds from India via UK; in calcium carbonate used in food supplements notified by Denmark; in spice from India; in instant noodle soup from Ukraine; in food supplements from France; 2-Chloroethanol in food supplement from Germany; in organic cinnamon from Sri Lanka; in the ingredient used in ice cream from France; in food supplements from Poland; 2-chloroethanol in raw material - Vitamin B₁₂ from Spain; in instant noodle from China; in Rondelé cheese from Portugal; in a mix of food additives containing locust bean gum, from Malaysia
• Heavy metals: Cadmium in horse liver and horse meat from Romania; Mercury (1.3 mg/kg - ppm) in defrosted swordfish from Spain (2) and Italy (1); Too high content of cadmium in organic cocoa powder notified by Slowakia; Mercury in a recovery drink from France; Cadmium in linseed from France; Lead in frozen pheasant breast fillets from the United Kingdom, via Germany;
• Histamine: in tuna from Sri Lanka;
  Hydrocyanic acid: in apricot kernels from Turkey;
• Listeria monocytogenes: on goat raw milk cheese from France;
• 3-MCPD and glycidyl esters: in sesame oil from China
• MOSH/MOAH: in avocado oil from France;
• Mycotoxins: in organic turmeric powder from India via the Netherlands
• Norovirus: in oysters notified by Belgium;
• Pesticides: in hulled sesame seeds from India; Chlorpyriphos in rice from Pakistan; Carbendazim and Triciclazole in rice from Bangladesh; Chlorpyrifos and omethoate in freeze-dried green asparagus pieces from China;
• Salmonella: in fresh eggs from Denmark; in sesame paste from Syria; in sesame snack from India, via the Netherlands; in black pepper from Brazil (22); in food supplement organic ashwagandha in capsules from Slovenia; in trio hummus from the Netherlands; in dried dill from Egypt;
• STEC (shigatoxin-producing Escherichia coli (stx1+, stx2 + /25g): in tuna salad from the Netherlands;
• Sudan dyes: Sudan Blue II in icecream from Belgium;
• Tropane alkaloids: Aflatoxins and tropane alkaloids in organic flaxseed meal from Germany, with raw material from Hungary; in organic corn flour notified by Belgium;
• THC / CBD: Too high content of THC and Novel Food in CBD oildrops 18% notified by Switzerland; THC in food supplement from Germany;

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