Record food safety warnings from EU

According to the annual RASFF report released by the European Commission, a total of 7,354 warnings of risks to human health from food and animal feed were sent to the EU executive in 2007.

Consumers should not have any fears
about the quality of food sold across the European Union despite a
record number of food safety warnings posted last year, the EU's
health chief said.
Thanks to the EU's Rapid Alert System for Food
and Feed (RASFF), many food safety risks had been averted before they
could harm consumers, EU Health Commissioner Androulla Vassiliou told
a news conference.
"The majority, 65 percent of alert
notifications, in 2007 related to products originating in the EU,"
the report said.
Among the risks that were most reported in 2007
were the presence of potentially pathogenic micro-organisms,
mycotoxins, foreign bodies such as glass fragments in yoghurt and
heavy metals like mercury in fish, it said. China accounted for 12
percent of notifications.