Commission publishes annual Rapid Alert System for Food and Feed report 2017

Of these 3832 notifications, 942 were classified as "alert", indicating that they concerned a serious health risk for which rapid action was required. The type of risks mostly concerned salmonella in poultry meat from Brazil was the most frequently reported issue in food checked at the EU border and mercury in swordfish from Spain in food checked on the EU market. Only a small percentage of the notifications in 2017 related to feed (6%) and food contact materials (3.1%).

Also in 2017, a high number of notifications related to fipronil residues in eggs due to the illegal use of this substance as a biocide. It led to the most intensive information exchange in the history of RASFF in order to trace and remove the affected eggs from the market. Commissioner Vytenis Andriukaitis, in charge of  Health and Food Safety said: "For almost 40 years now, this alert system has been a key tool to ensure that food put on the market in the EU is safe and can be traced, and quickly removed from the shelves if need be. Fipronil incident has led us to propose ways to further strengthen the system, making it more equipped to fight against fraud through coordinated actions by food operators and Member States' authorities in this area. Most of the improvements and concrete measures that Member States committed to are well on the way. I am looking forward to presenting the full report in the AGRIFISH Council in November''.