The number of EU food safety notifications grew 7.8% from 2009 to 2010 to reach an all-time high of 8,582, according to the Rapid Alert System for Food and Feed’s (RASFF) 2010 Annual Report. The RASFF is the EU’s network for informing member states and the European Commission of food and feed risks. The number of original notifications increased 2.3% to 3,358, and the number of follow-up notifications jumped 11.6% to 5,244. Of the 8,582 notifications, 592 were alerts that necessitate immediate action; 1,188 were noncritical informational notifications; and 1,578 were border rejections. The most prevalent reason for notifications was the presence of mycotoxins. Of the 679 notifications about mycotoxins, 86% were border rejections. The next most frequent cause for notifications were pathogenic micro-organisms and pesticide residues with 548 and 284 notifications, respectively. The Report stated that the increase in border rejections is likely due to new food import regulations. By country of origin, the most notifications regarded products from China, with 448 notifications. Next were products from Turkey, with 255 notifications, followed by India, the US and Argentina, with 251, 160 and 158 notifications, respectively.

Source: RASFF