In December 2024, there were 453 notifications on the RASFF Portal including 398 foods, 28 animal feeds and 27 food contact material notifications.

In food, fruits and vegetables are still the products that account for the most cases (100 notifications), followed by nuts, nut products and seeds (42 notifications), poultry meat and poultry meat product (36 notifications).

There are highlight alerts reported this month

1. Microbiology

In December, the EU issued 73 warnings related to microbial contamination, mostly related to salmonella and Listeria monocytogenes.

• Salmonella contamination: more than 50% of all alerts related to microbiology, mainly in the poultry meat product group; in addition, there were some warnings in tree nut products, eggs, spices, etc.
• For 16% of alerts related to listeria monocytogenes contamination in dairy products, meat, fish, snacks.
• For 10% E.coli contamination in dairy and meat products.
• GMO detection in rice cakes originating from China.
• Some cases of mold contamination were quite high in cheese from France, chestnuts from China, carrots from the Netherlands.
• Norovirus contamination in oysters originating from European countries and dates originating from Iran.
• Detection of Anisakis spp. in frozen mackerel originating from Spain.
• There is also an alert related to bacillus cereus contamination in cereal cakes originating from Denmark. Cereal and grain products are highly susceptible to this bacteria, which is one of the bacteria that causes food poisoning.

2. Plant protection drugs

• Detection of residues of unapproved active ingredients with quite high frequency such as chlorpyrifos, acephate, clopidol, hexaconazole, chlorfenapyr, carbendazim, chlorothalonil mainly in the group of fruit and vegetable products. In addition, some other unauthorized substances that need to be noted are: ethylene oxide detected in xantam gum originating from China; Phosmet in lemons originating from Turkey; triazophos, sulfotep in Vietnamese coriander originating from Thailand; iprobenfos in turmeric powder originating from India.
• Note that active substances exceeding the MRL threshold have a frequent warning frequency: acetamiprid in vegetables, fruits, cereal products and cocoa.
• Especially this month, the active substance diuron was detected in black tea originating from Sri Lanka. This is a herbicide not on the list of pesticides allowed for use in the EU.

3. Chemical contamination:

This is the group with the most alerts in December, some noteworthy information is as follows:

• Nearly 40% of the total number of cases exceeded the Aflatoxin MRL threshold, mostly concentrated in the group of dried fruits and tree nuts (accounting for nearly 90% of aflatoxin contamination cases) mainly originating from Turkey, South American countries, West Asia and Egypt.
• Ochratoxin A exceeded the MRL threshold in some dried fruit products mainly originating from Türkiye.
• Heavy metal group noted exceeding the Cd MRL threshold in some animal meat and seafood products.
• Alkaloids exceeding MRL in spices originating from many different countries such as Turkey, Pakistan, India, etc.
• High Acrylamide content in fried sweet potatoes originating from the Netherlands.
• Two alerts cases related to 3-MCPD and glycidyl esters contamination in palm oil.
• Excessive Cyanide content in nut and vegetable products.
• Mineral oil (MOAH/MOSH) detected in green tea originating from Thailand.

4. Food additives: highlights as follows

• Prohibited additives E 110 - Sunset Yellow FCF, E 102 Tartazine, E 133 - Brilliant Blue FCF detected in green tea from Thailand.
• Notably, Rhodamine B, a food colorant not allowed to be used in food, was found in chili powder originating from Bangladesh.
• Preservative E 220 content was higher than the permitted ML and was not declared on the label.
• Carrageenan E407, which is not allowed to be used in jelly originating from China and Taiwan, was detected with 4 warnings.

5. Allergies

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

6. Other warnings

• This month, there were warnings about foreign objects such as pieces of plastic, metal, glass, and steel cut in food products.
• Cases related to the use of novel foods not yet approved in the EU such as Clitoria ternatea, 10-OH-HHC, Syzygium cumini, Tetrahydrocannabinol (THC),…
• Detection of natural toxins Amnesic Shellfish Poisoning
• There are some cases of lack of certification 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