Introduction on the RASFF system of the EU

The Rapid Alert System for Food and Feed (RASFF) has its legal basis in the Regulation (EC) N° 178/2002, which establishes this system as a network involving the member states of the EU, the European Commission as member and manager and the EFSA (European Food Safety Agency). Also the EEA countries: Norway, Liechtenstein and Iceland, are members of the RASFF.

The RASFF was put into place to provide food and feed control authorities with an effective tool to exchange information about measures taken responding to serious risks detected in relation to food and feed. The system consists of clearly identified contact points in the EC, EEA, EFSA and at national level in the member states.
The member states shall immediately notify the Commission under the rapid alert system of:

Any measure they adopt in restricting the placing on the market, forcing the withdrawal from the market or recall from food and feed in order to protect human health;

Any recommendation or agreement with the professional operators in preventing, limiting or imposing specific conditions on market access or using food and feed on account of a serious risk to human health;

Any rejection related to a direct or indirect risk to human health by a competent authority at any European border.

Mainly there are market notifications and border rejection notifications.
Within the market notifications an alert notification is sent, when a food or feed represents serious risks on the market and rapid action is required. Products as subjects of an alert notification must be withdrawn from the market in each member state following their own mechanisms.

An information notification is issued by the notifying country when a risk is identified for certain food or feed without requiring a rapid action (i.e. for a product which didn’t reach the market or is no longer on the market of other member countries).

A border rejection notification means that the European Community refuses a food or feed representing a risk to human or animal health.
An original notification can be rejected from transmission through the RASFF after evaluation by the Commission. Furthermore an alert or information notification can be withdrawn by the Commission at the request by the notifying country, if this is based on false or insufficient information.
In the table shown here the RASFF notifications are limited to the pesticide residues on fruits and vegetables exported from ACP countries of 2005 to 2010. All notifications are based on the RASFF portal:

http://ec.europa.eu/food/food/rapidalert/rasff_portal_database_en.htm

or on the UK MRL monitoring reports which are published quarterly:

http://www.pesticides.gov.uk/prc.asp?id=2223

The type of notification (information, alert or border rejection) is indicated showing the crop and active substance and the importing and notifying country.
The analyzed residue values are listed with the date of analysis. The current EU MRLs are also shown. As the MRLs were under evaluation of the EFSA for the new Regulation (EC) 396/2005 in 2005 and 2006 and some are recently being re-evaluated by EFSA, the actual MRLs cannot be compared with the analytical residue data for a compliance check. Many of the MRLs for the crop/active substance combinations have changed in the meantime – and some keep on changing.
The data table on RASFF notifications for fresh fruits and vegetables imported by ACP countries to the European market will be updated on a regular basis and can be easily looked up when visiting the PIP/COLEACP home page.