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The EU Alert and Cooperation Network is made up of members of the Rapid Alert System for Food and Feed network (RASFF), the Administrative Assistance and Cooperation network (AAC) and the Agri-Food Fraud Network (FFN). European Commission has just published its 2021 report of the Alert and Cooperation Network, which shows that 2021 recorded the highest number of exchanges ever reached. 

Among suspicions of fraud, the most frequent notifications were related to the illegal movement of cats and dogs with 114 in total, while more than half of those involved animals coming from non-EU countries. Pets were often accompanied by counterfeit health certificates, illegally issued EU passports providing false information on the origin, or forged rabies anti-body laboratory results. The latter is of particular concern for animals coming from countries where rabies remains widespread. The report also flags that E-commerce is also becoming a more and more important route by which certain foods reach consumers. In 2021, a total of 281 RASFF notifications related to e-commerce as the main way of trade. Half of notifications about products traded online concerned dietetic foods, food supplements and fortified foods, followed by food contact material, reported in one third of the notifications. 

Read the 2021 Report here

 2020 Annual Food Fraud report: Fight against food fraud in Europe continued despite the COVID-19 pandemic 

Today, the European Commission has published the 2020 annual report of the EU Agri-Food Fraud Network (EU FFN) and the Administrative Assistance and Cooperation system for Food Fraud (AAC-FF).

In five years, the number of cases created per year has more than doubled, going from 157 in 2016 to 349 in 2020. The increased interaction between Member States within the EU Agri-Food Fraud Network has shown that fight against food fraud in Europe is tightening up. Sharing information on suspected cross-border fraud violations has proven to be essential in better identifying, investigating and protecting EU customers against illegal practices.

The EU FFN also works with the European Anti-Fraud Office (OLAF) in joint actions targeting counterfeited foodstuff. In 2020, members of the network were also engaged in OPSON - a joint Europol/Interpol initiative targeting trafficking in fake and substandard food and beverages and operation LAKE, which focused on the trafficking of the protected European eel (Anguilla Anguilla) species.

More information on the EU FFN can be found here.

 FSAI's annual report covers enforcement, inspections, sampling, recalls, Brexit, and food fraud. On its 2019 food fraud activities, the RASFF (Rapid Alert System for Food and Feed) dealt with 3,997 events, of these just 34 were notified by Ireland. Some 21 notifications were about food which had originated in Ireland, and 13 were related to foods in distribution in the country. During 2019, authorised officers from the FSAI, other state regulatory authorities, and official agencies conducted 52 investigations where breaches of food law and food fraud were suspected. Ireland published four cases relating to alcohol, beef, and fish in the European Commission’s Administrative Assistance and Cooperation/Food Fraud Network database. Eleven EU AAC FFN notifications were processed. Returns submitted by Ireland to Europol as part of Operation Opson included seizures of food of animal origin such as meat and dairy, and alcohol.

Read the article or FSAI's 2019 Annual Report