RASFF – Food and Feed Safety Alerts: Annual Report 2016

The EU has one of the highest food safety standards in the world – largely thanks to the solid set of EU legislation in place, which ensures that food is safe for consumers. A key tool to ensure the flow of information to enabling swift reaction when risks to public health are detected in the food chain is RASFF – the Rapid Alert System for Food and Feed.

Created in 1979, RASFF enables information to be shared efficiently between its members (EU-28 national food safety authorities, Commission, EFSA, ESA, Norway, Liechtenstein, Iceland and Switzerland) and provides a round-the-clock service to ensure that urgent notifications are sent, received and responded to collectively and efficiently. Thanks to RASFF, many food safety risks had been averted before they could have been harmful to European consumers.

Vital information exchanged through RASFF can lead to products being recalled from the market. A robust system, which has matured over the years, RASFF continues to show its value to ensure food safety in the EU and beyond.

New publication: the 2016 RASFF annual report

The 2016 RASFF annual report introduces Sankey charts and country fact sheets, giving a deeper insight in the data on the activity of RASFF in 2016.

RASFF portal

The RASFF portal features an interactive searchable online database. It gives public access to summary information about the most recently transmitted RASFF notifications as well as the ability to search for information on any notification issued in the past. Access the RASFF portal

RASFF Consumers‘ Portal

The RASFF consumers‘ portal has been available for consumers to use since June 2014. The portal provides the latest information on food recalls and public health warnings in all EU countries. Access the RASFF Consumers‘ Portal

The European Commission created the RASFF database to keep its information as transparent as possible to the consumers, business operators and authorities around the world. In doing so, however, it needs to strike a balance between openness and protection of information that could lead to disproportionate economic damage (learn more in the Disclaimer).

Quelle: European Commission