Food News

Alert notices from RASFF concerning food: New ethylene oxide / 2-Chlorethanol alerts and no end in sight

alert

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 should 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 AGROLABGROUP 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. 

 

  • Acrylamide: in biscuits from North Macedonia
  • Cronobacter spp.: in rice flour from Turkey, via Germany
  • Ethylene oxide/2-Chlorethanol: in locust bean gum notified, Belgium (2), France, and from Italy (2), Germany (2) and Turkey; in meat products containing E410 (locust bean gum) notified y Poland; in ice cream and sorbets notified by France (2); in soft ice cream from Slovenia; in additive for ice cream preparation notified by France and Romania (4); in breakfast dehydrated food from France with additive from Turkey; in mustard seed from Germany; in donuts from France (2); in phytobiologicals notified by the Netherlands and Denmark; in ginger extract and in food supplements with ginger extract notified by France; Tomato sauce and Toscan sauce from Denmark; in organic turmeric powder from India; in ajwain seeds from India; in prickley-pear capsules, in Moringa capsules and another food supplements from Germany (2) and Austria (2); in Moringa powder from India (2); in soft cheese from Poland containing a stabilizer additive from Turkey; in organic Ashwagandha extract from India: in bamboo extract used for food supplements notified by Austria; in intermediate products with stabilizer from Spain; in curry (spice) notified by France; in sesame seeds from India; in bacopa extract used in food supplement from Spain; in roasted and salted sunflower seeds notified by France; in caramelised nuts with sesame seeds (almond, hazelnut and peanut) from Greece, with raw material from Nigeria, dispatched from Turkey; in spice paste from Singapore; in terrines notified by Belgium;
  • Heavy metals: Mercury in sword fish notified by Italy (3) and from Spain (2); Cadmium in squid from Argentina, from India and Italy; Lead in food supplement from India; Cadmium in chocolate from Colombia notified by Switzerland; Cadmium in horse meat notified by Belgium;
  • Histamine: in fresh tuna notified by Italy (2)
  • Hydrocyanic acid: in apricot kernels from Italy
  • Iodine (too high content): in seaweed salad from Germany;
  • Listeria monocytogenes: in cheddar cheese from Ireland; in raw milk cheese from France (2); in gorgonzola from Italy (2); in chicken curry salad from Belgium
  • 3-MCPD, glycidyl esters: in degummed corn oil from Brazil; in palm oils notified by Denmark;
  • Mycotoxins: Aflatoxins in broken nutmeg from Indonesia; in ground curcuma root notified by the Netherlands;
  • PAH: Benzo(a)pyrene in salted butter notified by the Netherlands; Benzo(a)pyrene and PAH in bay leaf organic from Turkey
  • Pesticides: Carbendazim, chlorpyrifos, fenbuconazole, paclobutrazole, penconazole and propiconazole in dill tips from Egypt; Anthrachinon in forestfruit tea notified by the Netherlands;
  • Tropane alkaloids: in parsley from Hungary;
  • Salmonella: in black pepper from Brazil (11); in sesame from Syria (2) and Pakistan; and Uganda); in Tahini sesame paste from Turkey; in sesame seeds from India; in cumin from Lebanon; in Garam Masala Spice mix from UK; in sunflower seeds halva from Ukraine via Germany;

 

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

 

Author: Dr. Frank Mörsberger