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Yesterday, the Commission published the 2017 annual report of the EU Food Fraud Network and the System for Administrative Assistance and Food Fraud (AAC-AA and AAC-FF). 775 cases were reported in 2017 in both the AAC-AA and AAC-FF, a significant jump from the 243 cases reported in 2016. This clearly shows that although there is no obligation to use the system, Member States' competent authorities have embraced it and are now in the habit of using the system to request information on suspected cases of non-compliance or food fraud from their counterparts in other EU countries.
In 2017 the Commission coordinated 16 cases of fraudulent practices handled by the EU Food Fraud Network, as provided for in Article 40 of Regulation (EC) No 882/2004. EU coordinated cases, such as the fipronil incident or the illegal treatment of tuna, usually involve several Member States and/or third countries and are one of many areas where the EU positively affects the lives of its citizens. Lessons learned over the last year, particularly in the wake of the fipronil incident, resulted in 19 new measures agreed by the Commission and Member States that will make the EU food fraud protection stronger. Preparatory work on merging the current EU systems for the exchange of data, information and documents concerning official controls such as TRACES and RASFF/AAC into the Integrated Management System for Official Control (IMSOC) also got underway in 2017.
