2008 Rapid Alert System for Food and Feed (RASFF) Annual Report published – 28/07/09

This report provides a detailed breakdown of all the alerts reported through the European RASFF system in 2008.  It includes statistical analysis and comparison by food category and contamination type as well as detail surrounding "important incidents" such as the mineral oil in sunflower oil contamination and melamine in food products from China.

Some interesting observations for 2008 include:

• There were 3043 notifications to RASFF in 2008.  These included 528 alert notifications, 1138 information notifications and 1377 border rejections.
• The most common hazard categories were mycotoxins with 932 notifications and pathogenic microorganisms with 452.
• The product types most often the subject of notifications were nuts, nut products and seeds (770), fish (451), fruit and vegetables (446), meat, game and poultry (244). 
• The countries submitting most notifications to the RASFF system were Italy (470), Germany (437), UK (346), Netherlands (246), Poland (156), France (138).
• The top "countries of origin" were: China with 500 notifications, Turkey with 308 notifications, Iran with 174 notifications, India with 159 notifications and USA 153 notifications. 

Download the full report from here