Rapid Alert System for Food and Feed: the semicarbazide notifications.

The recently instituted and easily accessible Rapid Alert System for Food and Feed (RASFF) has been tested on the semicarbazid (SEM), the residue of veterinary antibiotic nitrofurazone, using the RASFF Data- base Portal launched in July 2009 by the European Commission. The database holds weekly overviews, published by the EU for 30 years from 1979 and offers a number of other possibilities, such as searching for subjects of notification, the date of notification, notifying countries and product categories, countries of product origin and distribution. There is no doubt that the new database portal is an important contribution of the European Union to food safety and consumer protection.