RASFF (Rapid Alert System for Food and Feed) Lo scambio rapido di informazioni nel settore degli alimenti e dei mangimi, tra prassi e diritto

The research, carried on during the PhD in EU Law, focused on the RASFF, English acronym for Rapid Alert System for Food and Feed. After some short premises on the protection given to Consumers by the EC and the EU primary law and on the need to protect health without unnecessarily restricting the free movement of good (chapter I), the thesis focuses on those systems that allowed the exchange of information about foodborne risks (Chapter II), before the adoption of the General Food Law (Regulation (EC) No. 178/2002). Chapter III analyses the RASFF, studying in deep its structural aspects, its players, and its operating organization. To this purpose, some data have been used: they result from an “interview” to the RASFF Members’ contact points. These were the questions: how is the national net organized? How does it cooperate with the RASFF? How is article 52 of the GFL interpreted? What are the strengths and weaknesses of the national net? Chapter IV and V focuses on the effects that follow the activation of RASFF and on responsibilities of subjects acting within the net (with an overview of the most significant food alerts in the last decade). Chapter VI considers the RASFF in its relationships with other nets devoted to the exchange of information, both in the European and the International dimensions. In Chapter VII, finally, conclusions are drawn: the thesis tries to offer a solution – though theoretical - to the juridical and practical critical aspects of the System that have been pinpointed.