Food News

Alert notices from RASFF concerning food (except 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 analyse the RASFF-site conveniently by yourself using several filter options and limit the notification to those which are of direct interest to your business. Link: https://webgate.ec.europa.eu/rasff-window/screen/search

 

Chemical Hazards: Product Origin
Acrylamide 692 µg/kg (350 µg/kg) in cookies Ukraine
Biotoxins Diarrhoeic Shellfish Poisoning (DSP) toxins 234 µg/kg (160 µg/kg) in mussels France
Ethylene oxide (EO) / 2-chlorethanol (2-CE) +) EO 0,15 mg/kg & 72 mg/kg (!) (0,1 mg/kg) in bay leaf Turkey
EO 0,38 mg/kg (0,1 mg/kg) in turmeric extract (Curcuma Longa) India
Heavy and toxic metals Lead 4,47 mg/kg, 20,3 mg/kg , & 289 mg/kg (3 mg/kg) and Mercury 867 mg/kg (!!!), 22.378 mg/kg (!!!!), 11.676 mg/kg (!!!!) & 18.735 mg/kg (!!!!) (0,1 mg/kg in Ayurvedic food supplements (4) India (4)
Cadmium 2,3 mg/kg  (1 mg/kg) in mussels Chile, notified by France
Mercury 3,03 mg/kg (1 mg/kg)  in sword fish Spain
Mineral oil components (MOSH, MOAH)  Mineral oil components in sesame oil Singapore via Netherlands
Morphine 37 mg/kg in poppy seeds  Turkey
Mycotoxins Aflatoxin B1 48,7 µg/kg  (5 µg/kg) in Brazil nuts Brazil
Ochratoxin A  570 µg/kg (!) (20 µg/kg) in organic dandelion root France
Pesticides Chlorpyrifos +) 0,014 mg/kg (0,01 mg/kg ) in dried black-eyed beans Madagascar
Chlorpyrifos +) 0,048 mg/kg (0,01 mg/kg ) in dried black-eyed beans Madagascar
Chlorate 5,27 mg/kg (!), 3,62 mg/kg, 3,03 mg/kg, 2,46 mg/kg  2,39 mg/kg, 2,18 mg/kg, 1,59 mg/kg & 1,1 mg/kg (0,05 mg/kg) in chicken meat preparation (8) Thailand (8)
Dithiocarbamates 0,236 mg/kg (0,05 mg/kg) in pickled vine leaves Turkey
Acetamiprid 0,21 mg/kg (0,05 mg/kg), Chlorpyrifos +) 0,033 mg/kg (0,01 mg/kg )  & lambda-Cyhalothrin 0,061 mg/kg (0,01 mg/kg) in black tea Sri Lanka
Chlorpyrifos +) 0,13 mg/kg (!) (0,01 mg/kg), Carbendazim +) 0,024 mg/kg (0,01 mg/kg) & Tricyclazole +) 0,034 mg/kg (0,01 mg/kg) in rice Bangladesh
Chlorpyrifos +) 0,12 mg/kg (!) (0,01 mg/kg), Thiamethoxam 0,046 mg/kg (0,01 mg/kg) & Tricyclazole +) 0,055 mg/kg (0,01 mg/kg) in rice India
Chlorpyrifos +)  0,020 mg/kg (0,01 mg/kg ) in Basmati rice India
Chlorpyrifos +)  0,033 mg/kg (0,01 mg/kg ) in rice India
Pyrrolizidine alkaloids 3.292 µg/kg & 8.640 µg/kg  (!) (400 µg/kg)) in dried oregano Turkey (2)
657 µg/kg (400 µg/kg)  in peppermint herbal tea Poland
32.579 µg/kg in the food supplement Tribulus Terrestris Extract (TT-040 Plus) France
Sudan dyes and other forbidden dyes +) Sudan I 1.604,5 mg/kg  (!) and Sudan IV 1.091,1 mg/kg  (!) in paprika powder Turkey, via Netherlands
Tropane alkaoids Atropin 7,4 µg/kg & Scopolamine 7,4 µg/kg in buckwheat flour France
Atropine 11,1 µg/kg and Scopolamine 3,3 µg/kg in organic sorghum flour UK/Germany
Veterinary drug reidues Phenylbutazone +) 12 ng/g fat and Oxyphenbutazone +) >20 ng/g fat in equine meat Ireland, notified by France

  

+) application is prohibited

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

 

Microbiological Hazards Product Origin
Bacillus cereus in dip sauces Netherlands
Listeria monocytogenes in fresh salmon Norway
in cheese  France
in olive products (blackended olives) 47.000 cfu/g (!) Germany
in focaccia bread  Netherlands
Mold on the surface of dried plum with raw material from Serbia Croatia
Pseudomonads Pseudomonads and Acinetobacter in fresh low-fat milk  Germany
Salmonella in white teff flour Netherlands
in sugared egg yolk Netherlands
 in basil Egypt
in sesame seeds (2) Rep. Of Chad (1), India (1)
in mussels (Mytilus edulis) Netherlands
in Mousse au Chocolat products (classic and whole milk) Switzerland
Vibrio cholerae in frozen shrimps Ecuador

 

Other Hazards  Origin
unauthorized novel food (Bambusa vulgaris shoots) (2) China (2)

 

Author: Dr. Frank Mörsberger