The Rapid Alert System: implementation in NA 2 North LHA over the five-year period from 2008 to 2012

The Rapid Alert System was established by the European Union (EC Regulation 178/2002 Art.50, paragraph 1) for food intended for human consumption and for animal feed, with the aim of ensuring the protection of public, animal and environmental health. The purpose of the Rapid Alert System for Food and Feed (RASFF) is to provide the control authorities with the means of exchanging information on the measures taken to ensure food safety. This system allows for a rapid intervention following the discovery of food or feed already placed on the market and which represent, directly or indirectly, a serious risk for human, animal or environmental health.

Our work intends to examine all alert and information notified to the Hygiene Department of Food and Nutrition of what was formerly NA3 LHU in the last 5 years (2008-2012), and is now Naples 2 North LHU, bearing in mind that, according to regional law 16/2008 (10), the Local Health Units in Campania have been redefined. The types of risk regarding the food subject of the alerts received are: chemical, physical and biological. Food frauds (adulteration, counterfeiting, sophistication and alteration) and the poor state of preservation were considered separately.

Out of 146 cases of non-conformity reported, 87 involved chemical risk, 28 biological risk and 17 included foreign bodies; there were also 7 food frauds and 1 case of poor state of preservation. As for the origin, the food subject of non-conformity were for the most part (61,64%) of national origin, while 34.24% came from abroad. Of these, about 66% were of non-EU origin.

The experience gained during the period from 2008 to 2012 allows us to state that the information flow has been improved allowing local services that have been assigned the control to act more rapidly. A critical issue sometimes remains concerning the completeness of the given data, above all regarding the type of risk that, when well reported, provides a valuable contribution to the success of a comprehensive and responsible risk management programme. The encouraging fact that emerges from this study, however, is that, despite the premises made about the characteristics of the area examined, the number of alerts we received involving production sites located in the area of the LHU jurisdiction is less than what we might have expected.