This Brief aims at providing a general understanding of the rationale - scientific as well as political - behind EU policy and related risk management decisions in the area on non-animal food imports. Lately, various menaces associated with imported food and feed of non-animal origin appeared in the media: imported sprout seeds contaminated with E. coli, strawberries containing hepatitis A or noro viruses, to name but a few, are now as much discussed as the different well-known meat scandals. The authors explain the reinforced official controls at EU borders on certain imports of...