New Database for Food Quality, Safety Monitoring

VIENNAMonitoring and Quality Assurance (MoniQA), an EU-funded initiative for food quality and safety monitoring and control strategies, has developed a database of food quality and safety issues and corresponding analytical tools for food production and the supply chain. Via commodity and contaminant searches, the database users gain access to legislative limits and corresponding analytical and sampling methods as well as original legislation. A key component of the searchable database is the EU Rapid Alert System (RASFF), EU provenance issues, a thesaurus of terms and links to sources of reliable information.

The MoniQA database features a comprehensive list of contaminants and a comprehensive list of commodities in which the contaminants may pose a food-chain threat. The basic structure of the database was initially populated by data from the EUs Rapid Alert System for Food and Feed (RASFF) and augmented with results from ongoing work within MoniQA. The search functionality allows users to search RASFF notifications by commodity, contaminant, country of origin and/or reporting countries. The output can be restricted to cover all information entered over the previous 52 weeks or back to the first issued notifications in May 2003.

Contaminant categories were selected from the broad groupings of contaminants covered by the RASFF, together with all those where current EU legislation governing maximum permissible levels in food or feed exists. The initial list of commodities was based on existing legislation governing pesticide maximum residue levels. The list was extended to cover specific fruits or vegetables where contaminant legislation specifically exists or which occur frequently in the RASFF. Relevant corresponding legislation also has been added to the database.

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