EUROPEAN COMMISSION

RASFF PORTAL User manual

This book has been made by the Application Services Team, for the DG Sanco.You can contact the department via E-mail or phone:

SANCO-APPS-SUPPORT@ec.europa.eu +32 (0) 229.76.350

Ra

pid

Ale

rt E

Xch

an

ge

RA

SFF P

OR

TAL: u

ser gu

ide

I. THE APPLICATION ....................................................................................................................... 5

I.1. INTRODUCTION ................................................................................................................ 6 I.2. SYSTEM REQUIREMENTS ................................................................................................... 6 I.3. ACCESS .......................................................................................................................... 6

II. HOME PAGE: SEARCH PAGE ........................................................................................................ 9

II.1. SEARCH CRITERIA ........................................................................................................ 10

II.2. FUNCTIONAL BUTTONS ................................................................................................. 11

III. NOTIFICATIONS LIST ............................................................................................................. 13

III.1. THE TOOL BAR: SORTING OPTIONS ................................................................................ 14 III.2. FUNCTIONAL BUTTONS ................................................................................................. 15

IV. NOTIFICATION DETAIL ............................................................................................................ 20

V. RASFF CONSUMERS PORTAL .....................................................................................................21

INDEX

3

Ra

pid

Ale

rt E

Xch

an

ge

I. THE APPLICATION

Ra

pid

Ale

rt E

Xch

an

ge

RA

SFF

PO

RTA

L: u

ser

gu

ide

I. THE APPLICATION

I.1. INTRODUCTION

The RASFF is a tool enabling the quick and effective exchange of information between Member States and the Commission when risks to human and animal health are detected in the food and feed chain. All Members of the RASFF (EU-27, European Commission, EFSA as well as Norway, Liechtenstein, Iceland and Switzerland as partial member) have a round-the clock service to ensure that urgent notifications are sent, received and responded to in the shortest time possible. Thanks to RASFF, many food safety risks have been averted before they could harm consumers.

I.2. SYSTEM REQUIREMENTS

The following items are required for the RASFF Portal:

• A connection to internet• A browser such as Netscape version 4.7, Internet Explorer version 6.0 or Firefox 1.0

I.3. ACCESS

To access the application enter the URL of the application: https://webgate.ec.europa.eu/rasff-window/portal

The

app

licat

ion

6

Ra

pid

Ale

rt E

Xch

an

ge

II. HOME PAGE : SEARCH PAGE

Ra

pid

Ale

rt E

Xch

an

ge

RA

SFF

PO

RTA

L: u

ser

gu

ide

II. HOME PAGE: SEARCH PAGEII.1. SEARCH CRITERIA

Notification: • Reference: it allows searching notifications by their reference number • Subject: it allows searching notification by any word/words known or expected to be in a notification subject. The notification subject consists always of an hazard, a name of a product, its country of origin and transit countries if there were any. • Notified by: it allows selecting the country that issued the notification.

Date: it allows searching notifications by their creation date or period • week – by a given week of a year (current week, previous week or select which week and year) • notified between … end … - by a certain period of time

Type: it allows searching notifications depending on what criteria they were classified • Type: food; feed or food contact material • Classification: alert notification; border rejection; information; information for follow-up; news.

• Basis: it allows searching by typeof controls.

Product: • Category: this field allows searching by a predefined product category • Distribution: this field allows searching by a country where a product was distributed to • Origin: this field allows searching by a country where a product comes from • Action taken: this field allows searching by the action or measure that was taken on a certain product

Hazard: it allows searching by the type of hazard found

Keywords: it allows searching with keywords

keywords are added to URL, allowing to add a specific keyword search straight in your bookmarks or favorites

Hom

e p

age:

sea

rch

pag

e

10

Ra

pid

Ale

rt E

Xch

an

ge

RA

SFF P

OR

TAL: u

ser gu

ide

II.2. FUNCTIONAL BUTTONS

• “Notifications list” button: it allows you seeing a notifications list where you can find the most updated notifications or sort them in any other way.• “New search” button: it redirects you to a new search screen

Hom

e pag

e: search p

age

• “Get results” button: it allows you to run “search” with criteria that were entered• “Clear form” button: you can delete the search criteria to introduce a new one• “Load criteria” button: allows you to browse your own search criteria (txt files only)• “Save criteria” button: allows you to save the entered criteria in a txt file so you can load it and use it afterwards

11

Ra

pid

Ale

rt E

Xch

an

ge

III. NOTIFICATIONS LIST

Ra

pid

Ale

rt E

Xch

an

ge

RA

SFF

PO

RTA

L: u

ser

gu

ide

III. NOTIFICATIONS LIST

First - Previous 100 - Next 100 - Last: browsing the search results, depending on whether you want to go to the beginning or the end of the list of notifications.

III.1. TOOLBAR: SORTING OPTIONSN

otifi

cati

ons

list

Columns description:

• Classification: allows you to sort the notification list according to the classification type• Date of case: allows you to sort a notification according to the date of its creation• Last change: allows you to sort a notification according to date when it was modified last time• Reference: clicking on the reference number allows you to enter notification details. • Country: it allows you to sort a notification according to the country that notified them• Subject: in this field you can find a notifaction subject that consists always of an hazard, a name of a product, its country of origin and transit countries if there were any • Product category: allows you to sort notifications by a category to which product belongs• Type: allows you to sort the notifications by its type food, feed, or food contact material

14

Ra

pid

Ale

rt E

Xch

an

ge

RA

SFF P

OR

TAL: u

ser gu

ide

Notifi

cations list

III.2. FUNCTIONAL BUTTONS

• Details button: when clicking on it, a new window opens displaying the notification information.

15

Ra

pid

Ale

rt E

Xch

an

ge

RA

SFF

PO

RTA

L: u

ser

gu

ide

• Export to XML: clicking on this option allows you to transfer a notifications list into an XML file.It opens a new window with the XML data that you can copy and paste in an XML editor of your choice.

Not

ifica

tion

s lis

t

16

Ra

pid

Ale

rt E

Xch

an

ge

RA

SFF P

OR

TAL: u

ser gu

ide

• Print: you can choose to print this notification details. To do so, click Print and a pop-up window is displayed allowing you to choose the type of printer. You can choose to print to PDF, as shown in the following example.The notification details are shown in the PDF editor and you can save or print a paper version.

Notifi

cations list

17

Ra

pid

Ale

rt E

Xch

an

ge

IV. NOTIFICATION DETAILS

Ra

pid

Ale

rt E

Xch

an

ge

RA

SFF

PO

RTA

L: u

ser

gu

ide

IV. NOTIFICATION DETAILSThis page shows the details of the selected notification and can be entered by clicking on a the “Details” link.N

otifi

cati

on d

etai

l

• Reference: it is the notification’s reference• Notification date: it is a date of a notification creation• Last update: it is a date when a notification was modified last time• Notification from: it informs which country issued a notification• Classification: shows the classification chosen for the notification

• Notification type: it describes the type of a notification depending on the different aspects of a classification• Action taken: these are compulsory or voluntary measures taken by competent authorities or a company involved e.g. product (to be) recalled from consumers, product (to be): destroyed; physical treatment – acid treatment • Distribution status: it shows the distribution status on the EU market of the consignment(s) involved at the time of the original notification• Product: states which product it is• Product category: it shows the type of product category

• Hazards: it informs about a hazard that was evaluated as unacceptable risks (according to legislation or risk evaluation)• Distributed to: it shows a country where a product was distributed to• Origin: it shows the country where a product comes from

20

Ra

pid

Ale

rt E

Xch

an

ge

RA

SFF P

OR

TAL: u

ser gu

ide

V. RASFF CONSUMERS PORTALThe RASFF consumers’ portal is a consumer-friendly internet tool providing latest information on food recall notices. It includes also public health warnings issued by food safety authorities and food companies. By using this free tool, EU consumers are able to identify food that has been flagged in the system allowing them to make more informed choices.

The RASFF Consumers Portal can be accessed here: https://webgate.ec.europa.eu/rasff-window/consumers/

21

Ra

pid

Ale

rt E

Xch

an

ge

RA

SFF

PO

RTA

L: u

ser

gu

ide

By selecting any EU country, the user can view the list of recent notices provided by member countries or business operators on consumer recalls. The information can be consulted in the “Published” section of the portal. After a four week period, notifications will be removed from portal. Portal features will be further developed and improved based on users’ feedback.

If you click Open in RASFF Portal, you are redirected to the RASFF portal where more notification details can be consulted.

22

Ra

pid

Ale

rt E

Xch

an

ge

RA

SFF P

OR

TAL: u

ser gu

ide

Your personal notes...

23