Food News

Alert notices from RASFF concerning food (except for fruit & vegetables - see special section)

Alarm

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. 

 

 

We will refrain from repeating the numerous reports on all mycotoxin and salmonella limit violations, but show only a selection to pinpoint the risks. However, we like to put your attention to the fact that in numerous cases missing allergen information was categorized as serious and caused border rejections too.

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.

 

 

Chemical Hazards

Product

Origin

3-MCPD

4,85 mg/kg in chocolate chip cookies

USA (notified by NL)

Antibiotics

Doxycycline 129 µg/kg (MRL: 100 µg/kg) in chicken meat

Belgium

Ethylene oxide /
2-chlorethanol:

2,158 mg/kg (MRL: 0,49 mg/kg) in ground marjoram

Egypt

0,09 mg/kg & 0,24 mg/kg (!) (MRL 0,02 mg/kg) in spices (curry)

India (2)

0,31 mg/kg (!) (MRL: 0,02 mg/kg)in saté-powder

France

2-Chloroethanol 0,44 mg/kg (!) (MRL: 0,01 mg/kg) in food additive (chromium chloride)

United Kingdom

2-Chloroethanol 0,26 mg/kg (!) (MRL: 0,01 mg/kg) in organic tea

India

Heavy and toxic metals

Mercury 1,9 mg/kg (MRL:1,0 mg/kg) in swordfish

Spain

Cadmium 1,9 mg/kg (MRL:1,0 mg/kg) in Patagonias squid

Spain (notified by IT)

Histamine

in tuna loins (several reports about food-born disease after consumption)

Spain (notified by FR)

1592 mg/kg (MRL: 200 mg/kg) in frozen tuna pizza

Italy (notified by ES)

Mycotoxins

Ochratoxin A 2,94 µg/kg (MRL:0,5 µg/kg) in cereal-based foods for infants

Austria

Ochratoxin A 8 µg/kg & 6,5 µg/kg (MRL: 3 µg/kg) in rye flour

Belgium (distributed in FR, RO, NL, IRL)

Ochratoxin A 111,1 µg/kg (!) (MRL: 10 µg/kg) in dark raisins

Uzbekistan

Ochratoxin A 29,3 µg/kg (MRL: 10 µg/kg) in sultana raisins

Turkey

Patulin 27µg/kg (MRL: 25µg/kg) in apple sauce

Netherlands

PAH

121 µg/kg (MRL: 50 µg/kg) in sliced organic wild garlic

Bosnia & Herzegovina

Pesticides

Chlorpyriphos +) 1,7 & 2,6 mg/kg (!!!) 0,01 mg/kg) in Curcuma

India

Chlorpyriphos +) 0,12 mg/kg (!) (0,01 mg/kg) in green pepper

China

Tricyclazole 0,04 mg/kg (MRL: 0,01 mg/kg) in rice

India

Thiamethoxam 0,052 mg/kg (MRL: 0,01 mg/kg) and tricyclazole +) 0,12 mg/kg (!) (MRL: 0,01 mg/kg) in basmati rice

India

Pyrrolizidine alkaloids

1191,4 mg/kg (MRL: 400 µg/kg) in ground cumin

Turkey

Sudan dyes and other unauthorized colorants

Sudan IV +) in ground sumac

Turkey

Sudan I, III and IV +) in palm oil

Ivory Coast

Sudan I and IV +) in crushed pepper

China
(dispatched from TR)

Orange II in curry powder

Cameroon

Malachite green (2 µg/kg) and leuco-malachite (35,4 µg/kg) green in frozen salted snake head fish

Thailand (notified by FR)

Tetrahydrocannabinol (THC)

High content of THC (829 mg/kg) in food supplement

Netherlands

+) application is prohibited

Microbiological Hazards

Product

Origin

Listeria

in Belgian pancakes

Belgium (2)

in hummus

Netherlands

L.mono in milk (Kishta)

Netherlands

L.mono in Gouda cheese

Germany

in chilled beef snout salad (180 cfu/g)

Germany

in smoked herring fillets

France

in frozen boneless duck

Germany (Hungary)

Salmonella

in sesame seeds

Ethiopia (1), Nigeria (21), Sudan (1)

in sesame paste (2)

Lebanon (via NL) & Syria

in egg white (pasteurized)

France

in Tahini halva

Turkey (2)

in cray fish

China (8)

in black pepper

Brazil

Staphylococci

Staphylococcal toxin outbreak due to consumption of canned mushrooms (boletus edulis)

Spain

EHEC, VTEC, STEC

Suspicion of enterohaemorrhagic Escherichia coli in salami with truffles from Italy

Italy

STEC in spinach and arugula

Netherlands

Hepatitis A virus*

in Wakame Salad (seeweed salad)

Netherlands

Vibrio vulnificus
Vibrio parahemolyticus

in frozen raw shrimps

Ecuador (notified by France)

 

Other Hazards

Origin

Several maqui berries powders (Aristotelia chilensis, Novel Food) for sale on Dutch web shop.
EFSA raised safety objections to the placing on the EU markets of either powder or juice concentrate of berries of Aristotelia chilensis as a traditional food, considering the absence of quantitative information on the presence of alkaloids, and the fact that the expected uses and use levels of the powder and juice concentrate in the EU may lead to exposure levels of concern for human health. Therefore, powder or juice concentrate of berries of Aristotelia chilensis are not authorised by the European Commission to be placed on the market within the Union as a traditional food from a third country (Implementing Decision 13.12.2019). There was an application for consultation to determine the status of a novel food, pursuant to Article 4(2) of the above Regulation, which lead to the statement: Novel when used as or in foods, not novel only in food supplements (10.07.2018).
(photo Pinterest: https://i.pinimg.com/originals/f7/5d/93/f75d937d0dc8a3dc21ff7e706e836ca5.jpg )

Netherlands

 

 

 

+) application is prohibited

MRL exceeded: ! ≥10 times, !! ≥50 times, !!! ≥ 100 times

 

YOUR PLUS:

*Our laboratory AGROLAB Blasy-Busse is allowed to work with pathogenic food viruses and offers also analysis for Norovirus and Hepatitis A virus. 

 

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

 

Author: Dr. Frank Mörsberger