A RASFF notification is a message one member of the EU's Rapid Alert System for Food and Feed sends to the others when it finds a risk in food, animal feed or a food contact material, so they can act quickly. The European Commission publishes a summary of each one in RASFF Window, without the names of the companies involved.
Who sends them, and on what legal basis?
RASFF was set up under Article 50 of Regulation (EC) No 178/2002, the EU's General Food Law. Notifications come from the national food and feed authorities of the member countries and from the European Commission; Switzerland, Norway and Iceland also appear as notifying countries. Since 1 January 2020, 32 different notifying members appear in the list. Those that notified most often were the Netherlands (4,342), Germany (4,339), Italy (2,891), France (2,730) and Belgium (2,634).
What does a notification contain?
Each published summary gives a reference number such as 2026.1234, the date the Commission validated it, the notifying country, the countries of origin, the product category, the type of notification, the risk decision and a short subject line describing the finding. The full record behind it, opened from RASFF Window, adds the hazard, the analytical result where one exists, where the goods were distributed and the measures taken. The Commission says RASFF Window does not reveal commercial details such as brands and business operators.
How many are there?
From 1 January 2020 to 8 November 2026 the list holds 33,043 notifications: 3,856 in 2020, 4,695 in 2021, 4,421 in 2022, 4,777 in 2023, 5,364 in 2024, 5,328 in 2025, 4,602 in 2026 to 8 Nov 2026. In the last 365 days there were 5,482, against 5,215 in the 365 days before, up 5%.
| Type | Notifications | Share |
|---|---|---|
| Border rejection | 9,942 | 30% |
| Alert | 9,388 | 28% |
| Information for follow up | 5,852 | 18% |
| Information for attention | 7,860 | 24% |
Which products are notified most?
Since 2020 the product categories with most notifications were fruit and vegetables (6,131), nuts, nut products and seeds (3,832), poultry meat (2,898), food supplements and dietetic foods (2,457) and cereals and bakery products (2,069). The findings named most often were Salmonella (5,140), aflatoxins (2,922), chlorpyrifos (1,586), ethylene oxide (1,235) and foreign bodies (1,196). A notification can name more than one finding, and about 4% name none of the words on our list.
Food makes up most of the list, but animal feed and food contact materials such as kitchenware and packaging are notified through the same system: 1,823 notifications since 2020 were on feed categories and 1,263 on food contact materials.
What types are there?
Implementing Regulation (EU) 2019/1715 defines them in Article 2. An alert notification concerns a serious risk that requires or might require rapid action in another member country. An information notification concerns a risk that does not need rapid action, and comes in two kinds: for follow up, when the product is or may be on the market elsewhere, and for attention, when it is only in the notifying country or not, or no longer, on the market. A border rejection notification concerns a batch, container or cargo refused at an EU border because of a risk. The difference is explained in alert, information and border rejection notifications.
What does a notification not tell you?
It does not say which company shipped or imported the goods, it does not say how much was shipped, and a single notification can cover one sample or a whole container. A country that sends a lot of a product to the EU will tend to collect more notifications than a small exporter, whatever its record per tonne. The 16% of notifications that named Salmonella, for example, say as much about how often that hazard is tested for, and where, as about how common it is.
Where can I read them?
In RASFF Window itself, or on this site, where each notification is one plain sentence on the page for its country of origin, its product category and its hazard, with a link to the official record. The finder filters all of them at once.
Sources
- Rapid Alert System for Food and Feed, European Commission, checked 18 October 2026
- Regulation (EC) No 178/2002, Article 50 (the legal basis of RASFF), checked 18 October 2026
- 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.