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 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^GROUP 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. (FM)

• Antibiotics: amoxicillin (3141 µg/kg - ppb) in chilled pork trimmings from Poland;
• Bacillus cereus: in Italian herbs from Germany;
• Ethylene oxide/2-Chlorethanol: in food supplement (melatonin) from France; in kidney bean extract from India; in stabilizer used in production of tarte Milanese from Spain; in Boswellia serrata, in Ashwagandha extract and in Coleus forskohlii extract from India; in bread from France; in frozen chips made of xanthan gum from France and Germany; in food additive calcium carbonate from India; in fried snack with sesame from Austria; in HPMC capsules from unknown origin; in dehydrated gluten-free meal made of rice and chicken curry from France; in locust bean gum from Italy, used in additive blends from Germany; in intermediate food preparation manufactured in Spain with E-410 stabiliser from Turkey; in locust bean gum from Turkey; in Nettle Root Extract from China; in food supplements from the Netherlands; in ice cream ingredient from Germany; in muffin mix from Croatia containing xanthan gum from China; in food supplement from Switzerland; in xanthan gum from China and in xanthan gum from China, via Austria; in bread mix from Germany, containing sesame seeds exceeding the MRL for EO; in liquid yeast from Hungary, containing xanthan gum exceeding the MRL for EO; in cream (18% fat) from France;
• Heavy metals: High content of lead in wild boar meat from Croatia;
• Listeria monocytogenes: in ham, chicken salad and pancakes from Belgium; in raw milk goat cheese from France;
• 3-MCPD, glycidyl esters: 3-monochlor-1,2-propanediol (3-MCPD) and glycidyl esters in vegetable Ghee from Syria, via the Netherlands and in fortified powder from the Netherlands
• Mycotoxins: aflatoxins in turmeric powder from United Kingdom; aflatoxins in corn and maize from France; aflatoxins in ground melon seeds from Nigeria, via Belgium; Aflatoxins in ground nutmeg from Sri Lanka;
• Pesticides: Chlorpyriphos in dried dill tips from Egypt; Pesticides residues in tea from Cameroon;
• Salmonella: in tiger nut flour from Spain; in chopped and roasted hazelnuts from Turkey; in dried Mexican pimento from Mexico;
• STEC (shigatoxin-producing Escherichia coli): in frozen herb mix from Germany; in raw milk cheese from France;
• Sudan red: Sudan-4 in Palm oil from Ghana
• THC / CBD: Tetrahydrocannabinol (THC) in CBD oils (2) from the Netherlands 

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