Food fraud

[fifi]

Canarias 7 article (translated)


47 tons of Iranian caviar, French Champagne ; sweets, olive oil,  thousands of kilos of meat,  mislabeled seafood, some obsolete, but ready for sale at Christmas have been confiscated by the Guardia Civil in the last ten days in Spain. Some products were on sale  in many supermarkets in Puerto del Rosario..

One of those establishments in the capital of Fuerteventura selling a banned skin whitening.

The operation,  developed in conjunction with Europol and Interpol, has led to the arrest of four people in Spain,  and more than 1,300 complaints of administrative offenses to catering establishments selling products.

Products which expired this year  had been relabeled to date in 2017,  said Fernandez, who recalled that " bad labeling is absolutely illegal."

In ten days,  8,000 agents  have paralyzed 16,600 liters of liquor, 25,000 kilos of meat, 1,500 fish,  seafood, crabs ready for commercialization at Christmas and chocolates for children which contained up to 8% alcohol.

"Many people want to do business at this time," warned Colonel Jesus Gayoso, who commented that many establishments "may be tempted" to sell fraudulent products in a season of "massive consumption  ".



The most common violations  detected  were manipulation or lack of labeling,  expiration dates, transport or handling of food without sanitary control, immature fish selling and storing meat or seafood in stores without maintaining  cold storage or lack of traceability.

Regarding labeling, Colonel Gayoso recalled that, not only the expiration date must be correct, but the product information should be in Spanish because the opposite is also illegal.


The Civil Guard operation  aims to raise the  awareness of distributors retailers and consumers of the need to observe compliance with European standards of food safety, and  to pay attention to the quality and labeled of the products  purchased.