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The Czech Agriculture and Food Inspection Authority (CAFIA) ordered to withdraw from circulation the whole consignment of powdered pepper, because according to the Rapid Alert System for Food and Feed (RASFF) notification, it contained unauthorised dye bixin. Spice coming from Peru was imported from the Netherlands to the Czech Republic. 425 kg of 3 000 kg  were sent back before releasing into the market, remaining 2 575 kg were meant for Belorussian market. Even though Belorussia, as EU non-member, is not involved into the RASFF, it will receive information on contaminated consignment directly from Brusel.

Although natural dye bixin is authorised for dying of some foodstuffs, e.g. margarines or selected cheeses, it is not authorised for dying of spice. Furthermore, the European Commission ordered to tighten inspections of whole range of unauthorised dyes in spices and bixin counts among them.

Since the beginning of this year 54 notifications concerning the Czech Republic have passed through the National Contact Point (NCP) of the Rapid Alert System. 29 of them were recieved from the central of the system in Brusel. Although 23 of them were classified as so-called alert notification (warning), which poses the highest level of risk to human health, consumers were not endangered to serious threat in any of these cases. The consignment of baby food from Italy containing patulin, but which did not get into ciruculation in the Czech Republic or pectic jelly with fruit flavouring containing additive substance erytrozine which is not authorised for adding to jelly, could be given as an example. The consignment from Brasil passed through the Czech Republic and got to Slovakia without affecting Czech consumers anyway. Large part of the notifications concerned content of unauthorised dyes, but their concentration in contamined foodstuffs was so low that it could not  threaten anyone seriously.

So far, National Contact Point has sent 25 notifications to the system this year, which in absolute majority concerned findings detected during common inspections: again most frequently they were unauthorised dyes in some sorts of foodstuffs, aflatoxins in pistachios, overlimited amount of some preservatives or malachite green in fish. Several notifications concerning findings of Chinese glasses, from which decorating heavy metals were releasing, were also sent through bodies of public health protection.

In this year, notifications arissed from inspections of imported foodstuffs have markedly decreased.  Assumption, that particularly importers from the third countries will try permeability of our internal frontiers in a short time after EU accession, was thus confirmed. Last year 27 consignments of foodstuffs were thus refused and sent back directly from the point of entry in Rudná near Prague. Importers thus ascertained that they don’t get to the EU through the Czech Republic easily. In this year only 3 consignments were refused and notified in the RASFF.