(RASFF) Annual Report 2009 - European Commission - Europa

The Rapid Alert System for Food and Feed (RASFF)
(screening) and the consignment was released (“border control – consignment
released”). The second largest category of notifications concerns official
controls on the internal market 5 . Three special types of market notifications
are identified: when a consumer complaint, a company notifying the outcome
of an own-check, or a food poisoning was at the basis of the notification.
Finally, a new basis for notification identified in 2009 is “official control in
non-member country”. If a third country informs a RASFF member of a risk
found during its official controls concerning a product that may be on the
market in one of the member countries, the RASFF member may notify this
to the Commission for transmission to the RASFF network. In 15 of the 18
identified notifications, the information was provided by Switzerland, in
two notifications by the United States and in one by Canada.
2009: BASIS FOR NOTIFICATION
37 %
6 %
official control on the market
official control in non-member country
food poisoning
consumer complaint
company’s own check
border rejection
border control – consignment released
45 %
1 %
1 %
3 %
7 %
Allergenic substances
Directive 2003/89/EC 6 , amending Directive 2000/13/EC 7 which sets out the
rules on the labelling, presentation and advertising of foodstuffs, added a list
of allergenic substances that are required to be mentioned on the labelling of
food products if they are present in the ingredients. This laid down an EU-wide
protection of consumers who suffered allergic reactions to substances that,
for them, could be life-threatening. Allergenic substances did not get much
attention in food safety programmes until then as shown in the chart below.
Quickly over the years that followed the implementation of this Directive, the
number of RASFF notifications steadily grew and after a status quo in 2008, the
number of notifications on allergens jumped well above the 100-mark in 2009.
A SELECTION OF
TOPICS RECURRING
IN THE RASFF
IN 2009
5 Products placed on the market in one of the member countries including the EEA countries Norway,
Liechtenstein and Iceland
6 OJ L 308, 25.11.2003, p. 15–18
7 OJ L 109, 6.5.2000, p. 29–42
17