Salmonella spp. in RASFF notifications involving Croatia in the period from 01/01/2014 to 31/12/2018

• Published in: Glasilo Future
• Main Authors: Friganović, Emilija, Tokmakčija, Nikolina, Sečan Matijaščić, Ančica, Kelava, Mirko, Šarolić, Mladenka, Dorbić, Boris
• Format: Article in Journal/Newspaper
• Language: Croatian
• Published: 2019
• Subjects: RASFF; notifications; Salmonella spp.; food; Croatia; Norway; Iceland
• Online Access: https://hrcak.srce.hr/279713; https://hrcak.srce.hr/file/405166

The Rapid Alert System for Food and Feed (RASFF) enables a fast exchange of information between bodies and institutions involved in the system (EU Member States' national food safety authorities, Commission, EFSA, ESA, Norway, Liechtenstein, Iceland and Switzerland) in order to respond promptly to the health risks associated with food, food contact materials or feed. Salmonella is an important cause of EU foodborne outbreaks, most frequently reported pathogenic microorganism in food in the last few years. The aim of this study was to analyze RASFF notifications on food products contaminated with Salmonella spp. involving Croatia in the period from 01/01/2014 to 31/12/2018. All data were downloaded from the RASFF database (RASFF portal) and processed in MS Excel 2010. The collected data provided information on the: country(ies) of origin and distribution of the contaminated product, notifying country, product and product category, notification type, risk decision, notification basis, distribution status, action taken and, for some of the notifications, a Salmonella spp. serovar. Notifications mainly concerned "poultry meat and poultry meat products". Just over half of the reported food products originated from Poland, Brazil and Italy. Croatia was notifying country in nearly half of the published notifications. In scarcely over one-eighth of the notifications the country of origin of the contaminated product was also the notifying country. Majority of the notifications were classified as alert notifications and of serious risk. Most of the Salmonella spp. notifications were based on official controls on the market and on company's own check.