An alert is about a serious risk in a product that may already be on sale in other EU countries and needs rapid action there. An information notification is about a risk that does not need rapid action elsewhere. A border rejection is about goods refused at the EU border, which never entered the market at all.
What does the law say?
The four definitions are in Article 2 of Implementing Regulation (EU) 2019/1715. An alert notification concerns a serious direct or indirect risk that requires or might require rapid action by another network member. An information notification concerns a risk that does not require rapid action by another member. It is for follow up when the product is or may be placed on the market of another member country, and for attention when the product is present only in the notifying country, has not been placed on the market, or is no longer on the market. A border rejection notification concerns the rejection, due to a risk, of a batch, container or cargo at the border.
How many of each are there?
| Type | Since 2020 | Last 365 days | Serious risk decision |
|---|---|---|---|
| Border rejection | 9,942 | 1,483 | 50% |
| Alert | 9,388 | 1,357 | 87% |
| Information for follow up | 5,852 | 1,122 | 1% |
| Information for attention | 7,860 | 1,520 | 52% |
Alerts are the type most often rated serious. Every type carries a mix of risk decisions, because the type also depends on where the product went: the procedures say the actual risk is reflected in the classification, which takes the distribution of the product into account.
Why does an alert matter more to a buyer?
An alert means the product may already be on shelves or in warehouses in other countries, so those countries are expected to act quickly: checking stock, withdrawing or recalling it. Article 17 of Regulation (EU) 2019/1715 asks contact points to send an alert within 48 hours of the risk being reported to them. For an importer, an alert on a product they also buy from the same origin is the most urgent signal in the system.
Which type is about goods made inside the EU?
A border rejection always concerns goods from outside the EU. Alerts and information notifications can concern any origin, including EU member states. In this data 68% of alerts, 63% of information notifications for follow up and 41% for attention named at least one EU member state as an origin, against under 1% of border rejections.
What does each type usually report?
- Border rejection: most often aflatoxins, Salmonella and chlorpyrifos; notified most by Bulgaria, Spain and the Netherlands.
- Alert: most often Salmonella, ethylene oxide and foreign bodies; notified most by Germany, the Netherlands and France.
- Information for follow up: most often Salmonella, unauthorised novel food and cannabidiol (CBD); notified most by Germany, Belgium and the Netherlands.
- Information for attention: most often Salmonella, aflatoxins and chlorpyrifos; notified most by the Netherlands, Germany and Italy.
The notifying country is the one that found the problem: for a border rejection, the country whose border post stopped the goods; for an alert or an information notification, the country where the product was found, on the market or in a company's own check.
Is there a fifth type?
The regulation also defines non compliance notifications, for breaches that do not present a risk, and news, for information from an informal source or about an unidentified product. The network's procedures handle non compliance through its administrative assistance procedure rather than the RASFF one; only 1 appears in the public list since 2020, and news items are not part of it.
How do I see each type on this site?
Every sentence on this site starts with the type, for example "Border rejection notified by the Netherlands". The finder filters by type, and each origin, product and hazard page has a table of its notifications by type.
Sources
- Commission Implementing Regulation (EU) 2019/1715, Article 2 (definitions of each notification type), checked 18 October 2026
- Standard operating procedures of the Alert and Cooperation Network, version 3.3, April 2026 (SOP 4, risk evaluation and risk decision), checked 18 October 2026
- RASFF Window, European Commission: numbers computed from the list read on 8 November 2026
Last checked 18 October 2026. Numbers on this page are recomputed each time the data is read, last on 8 November 2026.