Brussels, June 30 - EU governments reported a fifth more food safety scares last year than in 2004, warning consumers about eating items ranging from shellfish and coffee to fruit, herbs and spices, the EU executive said on Friday.
Most national food alerts filed to the EU's warning system during 2005 related to products originating in the EU.
The electronic system, administered by the European Commission's food safety unit and known as the Rapid Alert system, allows other EU countries to identify risks to the food and feed chain within the shortest space of time possible.
Fish, crustaceans and molluscs topped the list of "risk" products at 20 percent of alerts last year, then meat, game and poultry at 18 percent, and herbs and spices at 11 percent.
National food alerts and the less health-threatening category of notification, where other EU countries do no need to take immediate action, rose by a combined 22 percent from 2004.
The Commission suggested a number of reasons for the rise in alerts and notifications: more pro-active reporting, improved in the EU's newest member countries and an increase in food imports due to enlargement, which means more border controls.
Italy and Germany filed the highest numbers of food alerts and notifications of the EU-25 through the system last year.
Among the main hazards notified by national authorities were the presence of mycotoxins, harmful micro-organisms such as salmonella and e-coli, and illegal substances like Sudan dyes.
Mycotoxins occur naturally as moulds on crops and can appear in a wide range of foods. They have been linked with renal disease and urinary tract tumours. Certain mycotoxins, particularly aflatoxins and ochratoxin A, are carcinogenic.
Both of these mycotoxins were reported last year in the EU-25 -- aflatoxins were found most often in pistachio nuts coming from Iran and also peanuts from China, while ochratoxin A was detected in spices and various coffee products.
Also, there were far more notifications in 2005 concerning residues of veterinary medicinal products in fish than the previous year. The unauthorised fungicidal dye malachite green was the most detected unauthorised substance in fish, it said.
Illegal dyes were found in spices and other food products in 2005, in particular the Sudan group of dyes -- a group of four red dyes that have a carcinogenic effect and used for colouring solvents, oils, waxes, petrol, and shoe and floor polishes.
The most frequent origin mentioned for Sudan dyes notifications was India, the Commission said.
But since Germany was a major EU spice importer, it was not surprising that it had identified many positive cases and was also identified as the most frequent origin of the contaminated products, even though the exact origin could not be determined.