Rocket is a plant from the eruca family which is consumed as a green vegetable. In last days the Czech media brought the information about the case from Germany where a poisonous plant senecio was revealed in one package of rocket. Both plants are very similar. In consequence to this information the concerns might arise among public that this product could be found on the Czech market. Czech Agriculture and Food Inspection Authority (CAFIA) would like to provide more detailed information.

On the basis of this case one cannot deduce that all rockets originating in Germany are unwholesome. Foodstuffs from various producers and individual foodstuff lots are to be differentiated. Had the German authority, controlling safety of foodstuffs, proofs testifying that the suspicious lot of rocket was distributed to another Member State, another inspection authority would have to inform relevant countries by means of the Rapid Alert System for Food and Feed (RASFF) which functions on the whole territory of the European Union. As CAFIA already informed earlier, no alert of this kind had been delivered. Nevertheless, CAFIA took several samples of rocket originating in Germany with the aim to verify potential impurities of undesirable herbs. None of the samples contained either senecio or another undesirable plant.

Besides, CAFIA requested further information from its counterpart in Germany. The latter announced that the above mentioned finding was made on a sample provided by a consumer, not on a sample which had been officially taken. Nonetheless, due to safety reasons more than 9 000 of rocket packages were withdrawn from the German market and checked. None of them contained an admixture of the undesirable herb.