Food News

In this section we repeated alert notices from the RASFF system of the European commission issued in the previous month, which we thought to be noteworthy and of interest to our clients.

In the meantime you may have recognized, that the monthly listing became longer and longer. A repetition in AGROLAB RADAR binds meanwhile many hours, so we decided to stop excerpting this information. In addition the alerts did not differ very much from month to month. The typical threats were also deriving from the known countries. Nuts, raisins and dried fruit with mycotoxin contamination from South of Europe and Middle East countries & USA, salmonella in chicken breast from South America, Poland, and numerous spices and seeds with salmonella, and always often a too high sulfite content in dried fruit from Turkey etc.

You can analyze the RASFF-site conveniently by yourself using several filter options and limit the notification to those which are of direct interest to your business.

We from AGROLAB will screen the RASFF listing week by week also in future. From now on we will select and focus only a few really surprising or challenging findings in our opinion, that we will present in this section. Last month we found the following serious alerts noteworthy.

• Antibiotics: Maduramicin (79,5 µg/kg) in fresh chicken meat from Ukraine notified by Poland
• Diarrhoeic Shellfish Poisoning (DSP) toxins: high levels of okadaic acid (217µg/kg) in mussels from Spain
• Ethylene oxide: in organic amaranth from India (2x)
  in psyllium peel flakes notified by Italy and in psyllium seed husk notified by the Netherlands
  in guar gum from India
  in spices e.g. curry powder from India and from the Netherlands
  in ground ginger from India
  in sesame seeds from India
  in end-product Tahini notified by the Netherlands
  in organic green coffee from India
• Heavy metals: Lead in chocolate from Peru;
  Lead in food supplement containing diatomaceous earth notified by Czech Republic; Excess of lead and mercury in ayurvedic food supplement from India;
  Mercury in swordfish (Xiphias gladius) from Spain (3x)
  Mercury in thawed yellow fin tuna from Spain
  Too high content of cadmium and mercury in swordfish (Xiphias gladius) notified by Switzerland
  Cadmium in canned tuna from Ecuador
• Hydrocyanic acid: in apricot kernels form Turkey
• Listeria monocytogenes: several cases in various meat & marine products
  in chilled cooked organic beetroots from the Netherlands
  in gorgonzola from Italy
  in raw milk blue cheese from Northern Ireland
  in different organic products ready to be used in preparations notified by Belgium
  in raw milk goat cheese from France
• 3-MCPD: in corn oil from Brazil
• MOSH/MOAH: MOSH in basmati rice from Pakistan
• Mycotoxins: aflatoxins - as usual numerous;
  Fumonisins in organic corn wafers from Slovakia
  Ochratoxin A in organic wheat from Poland and in Basmati rice (4,94 µg/kg) from Pakistan and in organic rye flakes from Spain
• Norovirus: in live oysters (Crassotrea gigas) (detected /25g) from France
• PAH: Benzo(a)pyrene in palm oil from Ghana, via the Netherlands;
  Exceeding benzo (a) pyrene ML in vegetable oil from the Netherlands
• Pesticides: Unauthorised substance chlorpyrifos-methyl in spelt flour from the Netherlands
  Chlorpyrifos in basil (herb) from Israel
• Pyrrolizidine alkaloids: in cumin and organic cumin from Turkey
  High levels of admixture and high levels of pyrrolizidine alkaloids in oregano from Turkey
• Salmonella: and in numerous cases in various meat products
  Salmonella in sesame seeds from India
  Salmonella Grumpensis in black pepper from Brazil
  Salmonella Saintpaul, Salmonella Denver and Salmonella Poona in black pepper from Brazil
  in raw milk goat's cheese from France
  Salmonella spp. in sesame seeds (2x) and hulled sesame seeds from Nigeria
• Shigatoxin-producing coli: in lamb meat from New Zealand (2x)
• Sulphite: in dried fruits
• THC: High level of delta-9-tetrahydrocannabinol (delta-9-THC) in food supplements from Switzerland; Delta-9-Tetrahydrocannabidiol (THC) in cbd fruit gums from Switzerland;
  Tetrahydrocannabinol (THC) and unauthorised novel food ingredient cannabidiol (CBD) in hemp oil from Poland;
• Unauthorised dyes: Curry from Turkey contaminated with synthetic dye
  Rhodamine B and curry contaminated with synthetic dye Sudan Red I from Turkey;
  Unauthorized dye Sudan IV in palm oil from Ghana

Link: https://webgate.ec.europa.eu/rasff-window/screen/search

Author: Dr. Frank Mörsberger