European Commission: Directorate-General for Health and Food Safety, Alert and Cooperation Network – 2022 annual report, Publications Office of the European Union, 2023.

This annual report covers all the information shared in 2022 within iRASFF, between members of the Alert and Cooperation Network (ACN) that includes the Rapid Alert System for Food and Feed network (RASFF), the Administrative Assistance and Cooperation network (AAC) or the Agri-Food Fraud Network (FFN). 2022 shows an increase in the number of notifications shared in the AAC and FFN in comparison with previous years. This illustrates the continued commitment of Member States’ competent authorities to detect and report non-compliances, even if without health risk, or when suspected of fraudulent practice. In 2022, a high number of those notifications related to pesticide residues. The European Commission continued to assist Member States, through both expertise and IT support to facilitate the increasing exchange of information. Due follow-up was given to suspicious cross-border fraudulent activities, leading to launching specific actions such as the coordinated control plans on the illegal trade of pets, and to deter certain fraudulent practices in honey.

European Commission: Directorate-General for Health and Food Safety, Commission staff working document accompanying the document Report from the Commission on the overall operation of official controls performed in Member States (2021) to ensure the application of food and feed law, rules on animal health and welfare, plant health and plant protection products, Publications Office of the European Union, 2023.

The Commission publishes an annual report on the operation of official controls in EU countries in the areas of food and feed safety, animal and plant health, animal welfare, pesticides, organic farming and quality schemes. For the purposes of this report, references to EU countries and the statistical data include the United Kingdom in respect of Northern Ireland. This report is based on: the annual reports submitted by the national authorities on their official control activities; and the results of Commission controls carried out. The Commission’s report covers the year 2021. It provides a compilation of comparable data into EU-wide statistics. These data will, over time, allow trends in controls and non-compliance issues to be identified. This staff working document accompanies the Commission’s report and provides more details on the legal framework on official controls and Commission controls; and the controls and audits carried out by national authorities and by the Commission.

European Food Safety Authority, EFSA consolidated annual activity report 2023, Publications Office of the European Union, 2024.

The Annual Activity Report of the European Food Safety Authority (EFSA) for 2023 provides a comprehensive overview of EFSA’s key activities, achievements and challenges in ensuring food safety in the EU and beyond.

European Commission, Directorate-General for Health and Food Safety. Publications Office, 2021.

This annual report does not measure the number of agri-food fraud incidents in the EU. It presents the EU Agri-Food Fraud Network activities, highlighting certain requests for cooperation and voluntary exchange of information between Member States themselves and with the Commission on suspected cases of agri-food fraud and provides some valuable examples of EU coordinated actions.

European Commission, Joint Research Centre, Ždiniaková, T., Lörchner, C., De Rudder, O.et al. Publications Office of the European Union, 2023.

In the frame of the EU coordinated action 15 EU Member States (BE, BG, CZ, DE, DK, EL, ES, FR, HU, IE, IT, LT, PL, RO, SE) plus CH and NO randomly sampled 320 honey consignments originating from 20 exporting countries, which were sent to JRC for analysis to detect the presence of exogenous sugar syrup in honey. Several methods (EA/LC-IRMS, HPAEC-PAD, 1H-NMR) were used by the JRC to detect markers indicative for the presence of exogenous sugar syrups. Of the 320 samples received from the competent authorities of the participating countries, 147 (46 %) were suspicious of being non-compliant with the provisions of the EU Honey Directive 2001/110/EC.

European Commission, Joint Research Centre, Winkler, B., Maquet, A., Reeves-Way, E.et al. Publications Office of the European Union, 2023.

This Technical Report presents challenges, opportunities and good practice examples in relation to the implementation of Article 9(2) of Regulation (EU) 2017/625. Competent authorities of the Member States are required to not only detect violations of the rules governing the agri-food chain but also to identify possible intentional violations of those rules, perpetrated through fraudulent or deceptive practices by operators for the purpose of gaining an undue advantage. The purpose of this technical report therefore is to promote the uniform interpretation and application of the provisions of Article 9(2) of Regulation (EU) 2017/625.

European Commission: Directorate-General for Health and Food Safety, Fighting fraudulent practices in the agri-food chain – Overview report, Publications Office of the European Union, 2023.

This Commission overview report outlines how Member States fight fraud along the agri-food chain. Fraud in the agri-food chain affects industry and consumers economically, undermines consumer trust and may lead to serious health issues. The EU has recognised the importance of tackling fraudulent and deceptive practices in the agri-food chain and since 2019 Member States are required to carry out risk-based controls to detect fraudulent and deceptive practices. The Commission carried out a project between 2020 and 2022 to collect information on the new arrangements put in place by Member States to fight fraud in the agri-food chain.

European Commission, Knowledge Centre for Food Fraud and Quality.

Monthly summary of articles on food fraud and adulteration.

European Commission, Directorate-General for Health and Food Safety, 2023-

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European Commission: Directorate-General for Health and Food Safety, Implementation of official controls on animal by-products and derived products – Overview report, Publications Office of the European Union, 2024.

Animal by-products (ABP), while not suitable for human consumption, are converted into products that are brought to good use in many areas important for our daily lives. These include hides used to produce leather, fats used to produce biodiesel, or proteins, fats and microelements used for feeding animals, for the manufacture of medical devices, cosmetics and substrates for the pharmaceutical industry. What all of these uses have in common is the requirement for quality and safety of the products derived from ABP and the need for effective oversight of ABP operators by the responsible competent authorities. A new overview report from the European Commission has looked at the situation in the EU. It has found that inspections and checks carried out by the competent authorities (official controls) along the production chain of ABP and the products derived are generally implemented well. Nevertheless, the complexity of certain technical and engineering aspects of operators’ activities are challenging for competent authorities to check, requiring specialist knowledge to be effective. The EU Member States are working hard to address these challenges.

European Commission: Joint Research Centre, Bocchino, A., Ulberth, F. and Siligato, R., An information-based risk analysis IT tool protecting the European food system(s), Publications Office of the European Union, 2024.

The Farm to Fork Strategy has recognised the necessity of intensifying efforts to combat fraudulent practices within the agri-food chain while simultaneously enhancing traceability and alert systems to improve coordination in addressing food fraud. A substantial volume of food chain data is already accessible at European and international levels, enabling a shift towards a digital, risk-based approach to safeguarding the food system. Nevertheless, this data is dispersed across various food businesses, competent authorities in Member States, and Commission services, and data sets are not always interoperable.

European Commission: Directorate-General for Health and Food Safety, Report from the Commission on the overall operation of official controls carried out in Member States (2021) to ensure the application of food and feed law, rules on animal health and welfare, plant health and plant protection products, Publications Office of the European Union, 2023.

This report covers the overall operation of EU countries’ official controls and the Commission’s control activities in 2021. These controls aim to ensure a high level of health protection and trust in the food chain, from farm to fork. They are an important way to verify that businesses are complying with their legal requirements so that EU consumers can be confident that the food they eat is safe. They are also key to enabling the smooth operation of safe trade in food, animals and plants, both within the EU and with non-EU countries. National authorities are responsible for carrying out official controls. If businesses along the food chain do not comply with the relevant legislation, the national authorities are required to enforce the requirements, ensuring that businesses meet their obligations.

European Commission, Joint Research Centre. Publications Office of the European Union, 2021.

Culinary herbs and spices are valued for flavouring food and could also provide other beneficial properties, such as antioxidative and bacteriostatic effects as well as certain pharmacological activities. Their supply chain is complex, long, and globalised. Europe is one of the world’s leading importing regions for herbs and spices, importing approximately 300.000 tons, mostly spices from East Asia. Most of the spices are produced in countries where certain post-harvest processes such as drying and cleaning may happen before being shipped to the importing country where they are further cleaned and sanitised before being packaged and distributed either to other food businesses or for retail consumption.

European Commission, Directorate-General for Health and Food Safety. Publications Office of the European Union, 2023.

This preliminary outcome assessment and future-proofing study of the 2017 European One Health Action Plan against Antimicrobial Resistance (AMR) identifies priorities to inform improvements that can make the EU AMR Action Plan fit for the future. The study found that developments across One Health dimensions of AMR - including human health, animal health, and the environment - are likely to continue to be influential in the future.