EU - Salmonella, micotoxin and sudan, ongoing risk to food chain

Illegal red colour in palm oils, salmonella in tortillas and listeria in smoked salmon all featured on the EU’s food-linked risk alert system at the end of the year. The year finished as it started, with foods in various European markets contaminated by the illegal Sudan I and IV colours, and aflatoxins in pistachios in shells. In place since 1979 the Rapid Alert System for Food and Feed (RASFF) provides national authorities with a tool to swap information on national measures taken to ensure food safety, namely foods withdrawn from the food chain. Ochratoxin A in muesli, dried figs and chilli powder featured on the alert notification list for the end of year along with various food pathogens. Salmonella was identified in tortilla, frozen beef and pig meat, and sesame seeds. Spain alerted the EU to Listeria monocytogenes in soft cheese, and frozen boneless beef. The number of food-linked alerts in the European Union leapt by over forty per cent in 2003 on the previous year, with the majority sourced in the ‘old’ member states. A report from Europe’s Rapid Alert System for Food and Feed (RASFF) revealed the number of ‘information exchanges’ – composed of ‘alert notifications’ and ‘information notifications’ - rose from 3024 in 2002 to 4286 in 2003. Alerts require immediate action due to the risk of food contamination to the consumer whereas with notifications the food product has yet to reach other member markets in the RASSF network. With a considerable 65 per cent slice of the alerts, sourced from pre-accession 15 member states, and just 4 per cent from the ten new members. According to the annual RASFF report published last year a total of 454 alert notifications and 1856 information notifications were received in 2003. With 95 per cent of notifications, aflatoxins topped mycotoxin contaminations in 2003. Salmonella had a 46 per cent slice of microbiological contaminations, and the illegal colour sudan 1, with 29 per cent, dominated chemical contaminations. Food makers operating in today’s climate have no choice but to implement rigorous food safety tools, from machinery to staff training, into their daily costs. But putting a price on food safety is ‘frankly impossible’ because it is totally integrated, says Francois Perroud, a spokesperson for number one food maker Nestle. At every level quality systems are in place to protect our reputation – including the day to day finely-tuned tracking in our 500 factories, he recently told FoodNavigator.com. Among the many components sewn into the food safety system, Nestle also has a working group that meets once a month to discuss food quality and safety issues as well as a rigorous reporting group, ‘scientific punch and selected personnel’ to ensure foods are as ‘safe as humanly imaginable’.