In November 2024, there were 430 notifications on the RASFF Portal including 387 foods, 33 animal feeds and 10 food contact material notifications.

In food, fruits and vegetables are still the products that account for the most cases (96 notifications), followed by nuts, nut products and seeds (69 notifications), cereals and bakery products (43 notifications).

There are highlight alerts reported this month:

1. Microbiology

- Salmonella pathogen: mainly in poultry products, accounting for more than 50% of warnings; in addition, there are some warnings in tree nut products, vegetables and cereals

- 13% of warnings are related to listeria monocytogenes in dairy products, meat, fish and vegetables.

- Detect E.coli in dairy and meat products

- GMO detection in papaya originating from Mexico, rice originating from China

- High levels of mold in drinking water, confectionery, cheese, cereals originating from European countries

- Norovirus detection in bivalve mollusks and blackberries originating from European countries

- In addition, there are some warnings related to bacillus cereus contamination in cocoa; campylobacter in meat; high histamine levels in fish originating from France.

2. Pesticides

- Detected residues of banned active ingredients such as chlorpyrifos, fipronil, profenofos, acephate, bifenazate, matrine, tricyclazole, heptachlor, carbendazim. In which, the frequency of chlorpyrifos in vegetables and fruits is quite high.

- Some active ingredients exceeding the MRL threshold have a frequent warning frequency: acetamiprid, mainly in vegetables and fruits; imidacloprid in cereal products

3. Chemical contamination

- Aflatoxin (68 cases) exceeded the MRL threshold in nuts and nut products quite frequently, accounting for more than half of all cases, originating mainly from Egypt, Turkey and South American countries.

- Ochratoxin A exceeded the MRL threshold in some dried fruit products originating mainly from Turkey.

- Heavy metals: Arsenic exceeded the MRL threshold in organic strawberries and fish; Pb exceeds MRL in meat, spices, cereals, food supplements; exceeds Cd in avocados, meat, cephalopods; exceeds Hg in fish.

- Alkaloids exceed MRL in spices originating from many different countries such as Turkey, Pakistan, India, ...

- High Acrylamide content in corn waffles originating from Poland.

- Mineral oil (MOAH/MOSH) detected in rice originating from India

4. Food additives: highlights as follows

- Detection of banned additives E 110 - Sunset Yellow FCF in biscuits from Thailand; E 171 - titanium dioxide in cereals originating from Germany and edible paint originating from China

- Preservative E 220 content is higher than the permitted ML in dried apricots; E124 Ponceau 4R is too high in syrup; E211 sodium benzoate is too high in lemon juice originating from the US.; E210 benzoic acid is too high in organic cranberries from Ukraine.

- Detection of E200 sorbic acid and E210 benzoi acid, which are not permitted in tomato sauce products.

- Detection of E407 carrageenan, which is not permitted in agar jelly originating from Turkey.

5. Allergies

Undeclared allergies to eggs, gluten, tree nuts, milk, wheat, fish and crustaceans, and soy on food labels

6. Other warnings

- There are warnings about foreign objects such as pieces of plastic, metal, glass, and steel cuts in food products.

- Cases related to the use of novel foods that are not permitted in the EU, such as beta-hydroxybutyrate salts, cannabidiol (CBD), Betel nuts, Alpha GPC, Huperzine A, Lions Mane, etc.

- There are some cases of missing certificates for some products that must comply with EU regulation 1793/2019.

Vietnam: in November, Vietnam received alerts from EU as details are in the table below