Europol, OLAF, DG SANTE and 31 countries across Europe and beyond, together with food and beverage producers from the private sector, joined forces in the fourteenth edition of Operation OPSON. This yearly effort targets the criminals behind counterfeit and substandard food and beverages. Law enforcement, customs and food regulatory agencies seized 259 012 packages, 1 416 168 litres of beverages and 11 566 958 kilograms of food, including meat and seafood.
Overall, Operation OPSON XIV saw:
631 individuals reported to judicial authorities;
101 arrest warrants issued;
13 organised crime groups disrupted;
goods worth around EUR 95 million seized;
31 165 checks and inspections performed.
Expired goods reinserted into supply chain
One of the main trends identified this year was organised crime groups infiltrating waste disposal companies with the intent to get access to expired food awaiting destruction. The criminals then remove the original “best before” or expiration dates using solvents and print new, falsified dates on the packages. These relabelled products are then reintroduced into the supply chain. In terms of quality, they may not only be poor but often also pose a health risk, as seen in cases involving canned fish. As a criminal modus operandi, the practice of relabelling expired food is not entirely new, but its current scale is unprecedented.
However, the range of fraud in the food and beverage sector is not only limited to reprinting false expiration dates. Counterfeiting of food and beverages and the abuse of geographical indications are amongst the most common fraudulent tactics. As far as counterfeit and wrongly designated foods are concerned, olive oil and wines featuring a protected designation of origin remain strongly affected types of products.
In addition, authorities saw several instances of meat or meat products sold to restaurants or consumers despite having been stored in subpar conditions, or with slaughterers not respecting legal and necessary hygienic standards. Similar modi operandi were seen with seafood (e.g., bivalve molluscs), which was no longer suitable for consumer consumption but nevertheless sold.
Checks from raw material to final product
Food and beverage fraud constitutes a significant and serious crime area in need of being tackled on a national as well as on an international level. Operation OPSON was established with the goal to protect public health and safety across the EU.
The list of food and beverage items taken off market spans a wide range. Authorities seized staples such fruits, vegetables, poultry, meat, meat products and seafood. The list of food items also covers confectionary, fats and oils, with a special focus on olive oil. In addition, food supplements and additives were covered over the course of OPSON XIV.
OPSON XIV operational highlights
Europol coordinated OPSON XIV and supported many individual cases by deploying experts with a mobile office to action days. During these checks and raids, the experts on the spot could provide analytical and intelligence support to the national authorities. Moreover, Europol organised operational meetings for the spin-off cases. With hundreds of individual investigations and checks performed by police, customs and national food regulatory authorities in collaboration with private sector partners, more than a few stood out as examples to be highlighted in detail.