Operation OPSON is a coordinated operation between Europol and Interpol to combat trafficking of counterfeit and substandard food and beverages. In the ninth operation (Dec 2019 to Jun 2020) of this type, 83 countries were involved countries, and resulted in the removal a lot of product from commerce and the arrest of a lot of bad people.
We rarely see large scale food fraud investigations for foods originating in the United States, so this report is a great opportunity to see the large scale of food fraud around the world. These are products that are either related to substitution (one food sold in place of another ) or the sale of substandard product (such as that occurs when adulterated product is knowingly sold as safe).
Here are the highlights (or low lights):
Dairy Products -
Participating countries: Bulgaria, Italy, France, Greece, Portugal, Switzerland
The project resulted in the seizures of 320 tonnes of smuggled or substandard dairy products. National authorities seized rotten milk and cheese which posed a threat to consumer health. Additionally, 210 tonnes of cheese were seized, which did not meet the conditions to be labelled with a protected geographic denomination.
A Bulgarian investigation into an unregistered warehouse revealed seven samples of cheese tested positive for starch and E.coli. The authorities seized 3.6 tonnes of unsafe dairy products, which were supposed to be processed into melted cheese.
Olive Oil
Participating countries: Albania, Croatia, France, Germany, Greece, Italy, Iceland, Jordan, Lithuania, Norway, Portugal, Spain
A total of 149 tonnes of cooking oil was seized as a result of this targeted action led by Greece. About 88 tonnes from the seizures were olive oil and were reported by Albania, Croatia, France, Greece, Italy, Jordan, Lithuania, Portugal and Spain.
In Italy, during a check on a company producing olive oil, inspectors found a surplus of product, which was not registered in the official documents of the company, thus more than 66 tonnes of olive oil were seized.
Alcohol and Wine
Participating countries: Bulgaria, Germany, Greece, France, Italy, Croatia, Hungary, Latvia, the Netherlands, Norway, Portugal, Spain, UK
Law enforcement authorities, coordinated by OLAF, seized 1.2 million litres of alcoholic beverages, with the largest quantity being wine. Norwegian authorities seized more than 5 000 litres of vodka smuggled in a trailer.
Horse Meat
Participating countries: Belgium, Denmark, France, Italy, Ireland, Spain, UK
As a response to this dangerous criminal trend, Europol launched a dedicated project to support national authorities in combating the sale of illegal horse meat, led by Belgium, Ireland and the Netherlands and supported by DG SANTE.
The operational activities focused on checks of documents of more than 157 000 horses from eight countries and about 117 tonnes of horse meat. Live animals and more than 17 tonnes of horse meat were seized from several slaughterhouses in Belgium, Ireland, Italy, Spain and the Netherlands. Inspections of slaughterhouses in several countries showed that about 20% of the foreign passports used for these horses showed signs of forgery. Competition horses with forged documents were also sent to slaughterhouses.
Seafood
Illicit seafood products were reported in 79 cases, and, according to the data, the quantity seized was around 42.6 tonnes of products, estimated at around USD 591,094. Two arrests and two search warrants have been carried out in connection with this category of product. Higher seizures were reported by Portugal, who in several higher seizures totaled about 29.8 tonnes of cod, sole, manta fish, bivalve mollusks, cuttlefish and octopus. Italy 3 tonnes of unspecified seafood, Jordan, 1.9 tonnes of unspecified fish and Belgium one ton of dried shrimp, the average for all the other seizures being somewhere at around 116 kg/seizure.
Food safety and deceiving consumers were the main infringements reported this year. The food items were seized when turned out to be species substitutions, for example Alaskan plaice instead of sole fish, various types of other fish posing as Atlantic/Pacific cod, packaging issues (adding water to frozen scallops to increase weight), mislabeling the product (generic commercial name instead of the exact species) or expired products. In Italy, in one seizure, the authorities found in a marketplace counterfeit labels falsely stating that the fish products were coming from a certain plant, while in South Africa the invoice of several seafood products stated personal protection equipment (masks and gloves) related to COVID-19. The investigation revealed that the foreign citizen dealing with the goods had no import permit and was illegally staying in South Africa.
