Foodlaw-Reading
Dr David Jukes, The University of Reading, UK
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Commission News Item, 19 July 2023
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2022 Annual Report Alert and Cooperation Network A copy of the report is available on this site (click on image). |
The Rapid Alert System for Food and Feed (RASFF) was established to ensure the exchange of information between EU Member States, so that food safety authorities could respond as swiftly as possible to risks to public health. DG SANTE’s Team Leader - Rapid Alert Systems Jan Baele - sat down
What have been RASFF’s main achievements in the past 40 years?
Nearly 45 years ago, the Rapid Alert System for Food and Feed (RASFF) was one of the first real collaborations set up between the – then only nine – Member States and the European Commission. It was designed to immediately inform about potential threats to our food systems, on a day-to-day basis.
It was chosen as an instrument to watch over the Single Market, once the EU internal borders for goods were lifted in the early 1990s. The system was further strengthened as part of the European Commission’s White Book on Food Safety in the early 2000s.
Ever since, the RASFF has been an essential part of the EU food safety system. It allows Member States to take swift action against health risks related to food or feed on the market, as well as at the external borders.
How does it operate and what are the Member States’ individual roles?
Whenever a Member State uncovers, during its controls, that a particular food or feed placed on the market or presented at the border may present a health risk that may impact another RASFF member country, it will notify its findings to the Commission. By the way, member countries of RASFF also include several third countries, such as Switzerland, Iceland, Liechtenstein, and Norway.
The Commission then makes the information immediately available to all RASFF members, so that they can act, if needed, in their respective territories.
The Commission can also ask the country that made the initial discovery of the threat to complement its notification with additional information, as necessary. Member States will then report back with additional information on the hazards found, traceability and any other relevant information.
How do citizens benefit from having such a system in place?
With the RASFF in place, citizens can rest assured that national authorities take swift action when there is a food-related health risk, even if a product was produced in or imported through another Member State. It is essentially another level of protection that gives them the confidence of knowing that the food they buy at the market or eat while dining out is the safest that it can be.
Issues will always arise regarding food safety. However, through RASFF, authorities work together to protect consumers as soon as a risk is identified.
Therefore, many risks are averted before the product even reaches the shop shelves. And even if consumers have already bought a product that is unsafe to consume, authorities will use the information in RASFF to recall the affected products or monitor their recall by the responsible operator.
RASFF Consumers Portal is a great way to monitor such recalls reported in RASFF, for your own country.
The RASFF annual report now also includes food fraud. Why is this?
Citizens deserve to know what they are eating and where it comes from.
As such, new rules on official controls came into effect in 2020, establishing the Alert and Cooperation Network (ACN). This integrates the Rapid Alert System for Food and Feed and the Administrative Assistance and Cooperation Network (AAC), of which the Agri-Food Fraud Network (FFN) is a part.
This is yet another transparent layer of protection, aimed at ensuring that the EU’s food systems are the safest in the world.
