A border rejection is a consignment of food, feed or a food contact material that an EU border control post refused to let in because of a risk, such as a mould toxin or a pesticide residue above the limit. The goods never reach the EU market, and the country that refused them tells the rest of the network through RASFF.
How is it defined?
Article 2 of Implementing Regulation (EU) 2019/1715 defines a border rejection notification as a notification of a rejection, due to a risk, of a batch, container or cargo of food, food contact material or feed. Article 20 of the same regulation says the notifying contact point sends it without undue delay and that it goes, through the TRACES system, to all border control posts. Article 68 of Regulation (EU) 2017/625 then requires the authorities to cooperate so that refused goods cannot be brought back in.
How common are border rejections?
Since 1 January 2020 there have been 9,942 border rejection notifications, 30% of all 33,043 notifications: 1,056 in 2020, 1,476 in 2021, 1,513 in 2022, 1,550 in 2023, 1,688 in 2024, 1,427 in 2025, 1,232 in 2026 to 8 Nov 2026. In the last 365 days to 8 November 2026 there were 1,483.
Which origins are rejected most?
Only goods from outside the EU pass a border control post, so border rejections are about non EU origins. Since 2020 the origins named most often were Türkiye (2,133), India (1,117), China (817), Brazil (617), the United States (554), Egypt (471), Pakistan (302) and Nigeria (287). These are counts, not rates: none of them is adjusted for how much each country ships to the EU.
In the 365 days to 8 November 2026 the origins with most border rejections were Türkiye (385), China (131), India (131), the United States (87), Brazil (86) and Egypt (70).
What are they rejected for?
The findings named most often in border rejections were aflatoxins (1,995), Salmonella (1,036), chlorpyrifos (708), missing or incorrect health certificates and documents (685), pesticide residues (567) and ochratoxin A (426). 50% of border rejections carried a serious risk decision, against 52% of all notifications.
Which products are rejected most?
By product category, border rejections since 2020 were led by fruit and vegetables (3,181), nuts, nut products and seeds (2,180), herbs and spices (891), cereals and bakery products (585) and fish and fish products (442). Poultry meat shows the other side: of its 2,898 notifications only 335 were border rejections, and 81% named an EU member state as the origin.
In the 365 days to 8 November 2026 there were 1,483 border rejections, against 1,413 in the 365 days before, up 5%.
Who does the rejecting?
The notifying country is the one whose border post stopped the goods. The most frequent were Bulgaria (1,177), Spain (1,173), the Netherlands (1,106), Italy (943), Germany (849) and France (786), which is a picture of where food enters the EU more than of who checks hardest.
What risk decisions do border rejections carry?
| Risk decision | Notifications | Share |
|---|---|---|
| Serious | 4,966 | 50% |
| Potentially serious | 771 | 8% |
| Potential risk | 1,095 | 11% |
| Not serious | 1,677 | 17% |
| Undecided | 1,067 | 11% |
| No risk | 366 | 4% |
A border rejection rated serious was never on sale: the rating says how the authority judged the hazard, as if consumers had been exposed. See what a serious risk decision means.
What happens to the goods afterwards?
Under Article 66 of Regulation (EU) 2017/625 the consignment is detained and refused entry, and the authority orders the operator to destroy it, send it back out of the EU, or give it a special treatment that makes it compliant or puts it to another use. The full answer is in what happens to goods rejected at the EU border.
Sources
- Commission Implementing Regulation (EU) 2019/1715, Article 2 (definitions of each notification type), checked 18 October 2026
- Regulation (EU) 2017/625 on official controls, Articles 66 to 72, 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.