Food safety and animal feed incidents

The Food Standards Agency (FSA) issues food alerts to warn about food safety risks. These alerts go to consumers, local councils and port authorities.

Types of food alert

There are different types of alerts:

• Food Alert for Action (FAFA) is issued where intervention by enforcement authorities is needed. These notices are often issued in conjunction with a product withdrawal or recall.
• Product Recall Information Notice (PRIN) makes the public aware an unsafe food product is being removed from the supply chain, and advises them to take appropriate action (for example, to return or dispose of the unsafe food).
• Allergy Alert (AA) tells the public that a product has missing or incorrect allergen labelling.

Businesses should check the FSA’s alerts regularly. You can also subscribe to get food and allergy alerts by email or text message.

Rapid Alert System for Food and Feed (RASFF)

The RASFF is an EU network for sharing urgent information about unsafe food or animal feed. EU member states use it to alert each other quickly about risks, such as contamination or unfit products, so they can take action like recalls.

The UK is no longer a full RASFF member but the EU-UK Trade and Cooperation Agreement sets up information exchange on food safety. The FSA receives relevant RASFF notifications in real time and turns them into UK-specific alerts, so UK businesses can see relevant threats without direct EU access.