Food Safety in the European Union: A Comparative Assessment Based on RASFF Notifications, Pesticide Residues, and Food Waste Indicators

Guaranteeing food safety in the European Union (EU) is a continuing issue affected by diverse national traditions, regulatory power, and consumer culture. Despite the presence of a harmonized regulatory context, there continues to be variability in performance among the 27 member states. This study gives an extensive comparative evaluation of EU food safety based on three indicators: Rapid Alert System for Food and Feed (RASFF) alerts, pesticide maximum-residue-limit (MRL) violation, and per capita food loss. Fuzzy TOPSIS, K-means clustering, and scenario-based sensitivity tests are used to give an extensive appraisal of the performance of member states. Alarming differences are quoted as findings of significance. The highest number of RASFF notifications (212) and percentage of pesticide MRL non-compliance (1.5%) were reported in 2022 by Bulgaria, whereas the lowest values were reported by Estonia and Lithuania—15–20 RASFF notifications and less than 0.6% MRL violation rates. A statistically significant correlation (r = 0.72, p < 0.001) between pesticide MRL violation and food safety warnings was confirmed in favor of pesticide regulation as the optimal predictor of food safety warnings. On the other hand, food loss did not significantly affect safety measures but indicated very high variation (from 76 kg/capita per year in Croatia to 142 kg/capita per year in Greece). These findings suggest that while food loss remains an environmental problem, pesticide control is more central to the protection of food safety. Targeted policy is what the research necessitates: intervention and stricter enforcement in low-income countries, and diffusion of best practice from successful states. The composite approach adds to EU food safety policy discourse through the combination of performance indicators and targeted regulatory emphasis.