The European Commission has launched TraceMap, an AI platform that allows national authorities to detect food fraud, trace contamination, and speed product recalls.
TraceMap, a new artificial intelligence (AI) platform by the European Commission, aims to accelerate the detection of food fraud, contaminated food, and foodborne disease outbreaks in the European Union.
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The platform is now accessible to national authorities in all EU member states to improve food security controls and investigations.
“TraceMap is a breakthrough which will revolutionise the EU’s capacity to react to food safety crises and to clamp down on food fraud,” said Olivér Várhelyi, European Commissioner for Health and Animal Welfare.
He noted that it will provide better coordination between countries and stronger protection of both farmers and consumers.
“This is critical infrastructure for crisis prevention and control and should help boost all stakeholders’ confidence in our robust food safety systems,” Várhelyi added.
According to the Commission, TraceMap will use extensive data already existing in agri-food systems to track trade patterns and production flows in near real time.
With this in mind, the tool will use AI to improve safety risk assessments, rapidly identify links between operators and distribution, and monitor the supply chain to enable fast recalls of unsafe products.
TraceMap has already been put to the test. A pilot version was used in the recent recalls of baby formula across Europe linked to contaminated ingredients from China.
Food safety in Europe
The Rapid Alert System for Food and Feed (RASFF) notifications rose 12 percent in 2024 to 5,250.
About one-third of the notifications were border rejections, mainly pesticide residues in fruit and vegetable imports from Türkiye, Egypt, and India, according to the European Commission.
The top notifying countries were Germany (1,907), the Netherlands (1,155), and Italy (965).
In 2024, European countries reported 6,558 food‑borne outbreaks, a 14.5 percent increase compared with the previous year, according to the latest data from the European Food and Safety Authority (EFSA).
The most reported foodborne diseases in Europe are campylobacteriosis, salmonellosis, STEC infection, caused by E.coli, and listeriosis.
In 2024, Listeria caused the highest proportion of hospitalisations and deaths among all foodborne infections reported in the EU. About 7 in 10 people infected with Listeria needed hospital care, and 1 in 12 people died.
