Record food safety alerts shakes EU supply chains

The European Commission has released its 2025 Annual Report on the Alert and Cooperation Network (ACN), revealing a record-breaking year for food safety tracking across the continent. European authorities processed 10,490 notifications in 2025—an 11% surge from the previous year—driven by a significant rise in active alert notifications.

Germany, the Netherlands, and Belgium emerged as the primary drivers of these safety filings. Meanwhile, reported instances of suspected agri-food fraud plummeted by 46%, a shift officials attribute to updated protocols that no longer automatically label imported pesticide discrepancies as intentional fraud.

Fresh fruits and vegetables topped the watch list, accounting for 1,572 notifications (18% of the total). The vast majority involved imported goods—particularly from Türkiye and Egypt—with pesticide residues and mycotoxins cited as the primary culprits.

Mycotoxins, specifically aflatoxins, also plagued 53% of all reported nut and seed shipments. In the meat sector, Salmonella remained the dominant threat, triggering 43% of notifications, especially within poultry supply chains.

The report also highlighted severe compliance issues in online retail. Nearly 71% of the notifications about dietary supplements were flagged as potential fraud, with half of the incidents originating from e-commerce platforms. Misleading health claims and unauthorized CBD content were the most frequent offenses. Regarding Food-Contact Materials, over half of the issues involving kitchenware and packaging stemmed from chemical migration, such as primary aromatic amines and formaldehyde leaching into food.

In 2025, the network successfully neutralized several major international crises. Chief among them was cereulide-contaminated infant formula traced to Chinese oil imports, which triggered global recalls across 60 countries and sparked strict new EU import controls. The network also contained a deadly French cheese Listeria outbreak, and a massive Salmonella outbreak linked to contaminated irrigation water at a Sicilian tomato farm. Other unusual interventions included intercepting Indian cucumbers laced with paracetamol, halting toxic Chinese enamel mugs leaching heavy metals, and managing ciguatera poisoning cases in Germany from imported snapper.

The Commission emphasized that the record numbers demonstrate the increased vigilance of Member States and the efficiency of the ACN in neutralizing cross-border health threats before they escalate.

Source:

European Commission