Akademik Veri Yönetim Sistemi
International Congress of Food Researches, Sivas, Türkiye, 14 - 16 Ekim 2022, ss.458-465
Rapid Alert System for Food and Feed (RASFF) is the system established by European Union
(E.U.) to exchange information against to hazards on food and feed products. In this study, it
was aimed to analyze RASFF notifications for food and feed that concerning Turkey between
the years of 2011-2020. Historical data was compiled from Data Europa portal. The
notifications were classified by year, notifying country, origin country, notification type,
product type, hazard type and hazardous substances. A total of 44254 notifications were
registered to RASFF database over the years 2011-2020. The products originated from China,
Turkey and India received the highest number of notifications in mentioned period,
respectively. Products originating from Turkey were mostly notified by Bulgaria, Germany
and Italy. The ratio of Turkey-based notifications to the total RASFF notifications was 7.6%
between 2011-2020. Alert and border rejection notifications are required serious and rapid
measures. In RASFF database, sum of alert and border rejection notifications constituted 66%
of total notifications in ten-years period. On the other hand, this rate was 88% in the products
originating from Turkey. The majority of these notifications were for fruits and vegetables
(65%), and nuts/nut products/seeds (20%). The basic problem with the products was the
presence of mycotoxins. In mentioned period, only aflatoxins accounted for 34.2% of the total
notifications that Turkey received. On the other hand, pesticide residues were another
important hazard that corresponds to 35% of Turkey's total notifications. Same problems are
not limited with the last decade; it is an ongoing problem for long time for the products
originating from Turkey. It is thought that current measures and controls are not enough to
overcome this problem and new policies should be implemented to ensure food safety.
Keywords: Border rejection, Food safety, Mycotoxin, Notification, RASFF, Turkey