The Rapid Alert System for Food and Feed, RASFF

Finnish Food Safety Authority Evira is the official national point of contact with the Rapid Alert System for Food and Feed RASFF. The Member States of the European Union, the Commission and the European Food Safety Authority EFSA are taking part in the system. Using this system, the Member States can be rapidly informed of food or feed that is a direct or indirect hazard to human health.

It is the task of Evira, the Finnish point of contact with the RASFF system, to pass on alert notifications regarding food and feed to other authorities and when necessary to different correspondents and to clarify if the food or feed in question has been imported to Finland. The contact point will also pass on the Finnish notifications to the Commission, which will transmit them to all of the Member States. Notifications will be sent to the Member States of the European Union, the EFTA countries and also to the third countries from where the notified products originate. The system is also used for transmitting other information between the Commission, EFSA and the Member States.

Many notifications are made to the RASFF system and the number of notifications from Finland has increased every year. In 2008, Finland made 93 notifications, of which 82 concerned food and 11 feed. In 2008, the most common reasons for the food notifications were food additives, mycotoxins, microbiological quality and foreign material. Notifications from Finland have been made on vegetables from Thailand and food supplements from the USA, as well as crockery from China and European feeds.

Current issues on the RASFF-system  2009 

The Commission publishes weekly information on the notifications made to RASFF and compiles a comprehensive annual report. The weekly lists and annual reports are found on the Commission's own pages at the address:

http://ec.europa.eu/food/food/rapidalert/index_en.htm

For more information:
Senior Officer Hilpi Jenu, Finnish Food Safety Authority Evira, tel. 020 772 4311