This Brief provides a general description of the European Rapid Alert System for Food and Feed
(RASFF). It describes the RASFF approach on the legal level and with reference to notification
procedures including also new tools which were launched in 2014: iRASFF and the RASFF
Consumer Portal. In an introduction the present status of the RASFF which had originally been
introduced in 1979 is briefly reviewed. It is described as the main basis of modern food
policy in Europe enabling member countries to take rapid corrective actions on the one hand
and to perform statistically reliable analyses of food-related hazards on the other hand. One
chapter contains a statistical evaluation of RASFF notifications in general and specifically
with regard to chemical contaminants including also allergens. In another chapter reasons for
rejections of food and feed at the European borders are analyzed in selected case studies. The
Brief provides an easy description for the chemical dangers and contaminants it is referring to
outlining the names properties uses and importance in the food and feed industry
toxicological effects and contamination sources. The last chapter offers an outlook on the
future of the RASFF and possible expectations.
