Brussels, 20/07/2012 (Agence Europe) - In 2011, the year of the E. coli crisis and the Fukushima accident, the EU's Rapid Alert System for Food and Feed (RASFF) worked well, with a reduction in the number of notification, the triggering of rapid reaction when a food risk was detected and useful lessons learned from the E. coli crisis, the European Commission said on 20 July, the day the RASFF report was published. For the future, the key point will be to improve communication in the management of crises to avoid the confusion occasioned by the E. coli crisis and its economic impact when Spain was wrongly suspected by German Länder of being the source of the contamination (when in fact the problem came from seed s and shoots from Egypt).
In 2011, of 9,157 notifications on breaches of EU food legislation, only 617 related to serious risks. Most of the notifications were follow-ups (5,345) rather than new (3,812) notifications. This, the Commission says, reflects an increased effectiveness of the system with a better targeting and a more extensive follow-up.
Out of the 3,812 new notifications, 3139 related to food, 361 to feed and 312 to food contact materials.
On the subject of the E. coli crisis, one of the most serious food epidemics ever in the history of the Union (over 50 victims, mainly in Germany), RASFF has played a central role, not only for determining the source of the infection but also for withdrawing dangerous products from the market (seeds and sprouts)
“In 2011, we dealt with a number of important crises such as the effects of the Fukushima nuclear incident, the dioxin and the E. coli crisis. The EU managed to tackle them and the lessons we all learnt will no doubt guide us to do even better in the future”, commented John Dalli, European Commissioner for Health and Consumer Policy.
To achieve this, the Commission plans to: - launch the iRASFF - an online notification platform which will help RASFF work faster and more efficiently than ever; - review existing standard operating procedures for crisis management while allowing for sufficient flexibility; - revise rules on traceability to increase the speed and efficiency for tracing back dangerous products and withdrawing them from the market; - provide dedicated trainings on food-borne investigations and outbreak management as well as hygiene in primary production for major trading partners; - develop specific rules on seeds and sprout production; - and improve coordination in crisis communication activities. (AN/transl.rt/jl)