October 2024 Report on EU Agri Fraud suspicions

The Official Control Regulation requires Member States organising risk-based controls to identify and combat fraudulent and deceptive practices along the agri-food chain.

Similarly, and derived from the EU General Food Law, operators should perform adequate vulnerability assessments to identify risks and prevent those to occur when placing food onto the market.

It is therefore crucial for both Member States' authorities and operators to be informed about generic information circulated within the Alert and Cooperation Network in relation to fraud suspicions or deceptive practices, as it is already for notifications on risks within the Rapid Alert System for Food and Feed (RASFF), via the dedicated "RASFF Window" system.

With this objective in mind, and based on the provisions of the IMSOC Regulation, "Monthly reports on Agri-Food Fraud Monthly suspicions" displaying the necessary information concerning fraud suspicions retrieved from the Alert and Cooperation Network are now made publicly available.

These monthly reports include 'non-compliances with fraud suspicions' of cross-border nature identified and shared between members of the Alert and Cooperation Network (ACN) and retrieved from its three components: the Rapid Alert System for Food and Feed network (RASFF), the Administrative Assistance and Cooperation network (AAC) and the Agri-Food Fraud Network (FFN).

Non-compliances with fraud suspicions affecting one single Member State are not shared in the ACN and therefore not reported within these monthly reports.

The monthly reports cover food, feedingstuff, materials and articles intended to come into contact directly or indirectly with food, animal welfare issues for farmed animals, plant protection products, veterinary medicinal products and other inputs that may end in the form of residues and contaminants in food and feed.

The monthly reports do not reconcile data and suspicions related to the following subjects:

• animal and plant health,
• release into the environment of Genetically Modified Organisms,
• animal welfare for companion animals,
• placing on the market and use of plant protection products, veterinary medicinal products and other inputs that are not ending as residues and contaminants in food and feed, and
• animal by-products and derived products when they not intended to be used for oral feeding to animals.