Suspected fraud alerts in Europe increase
The number of discussions about fraud and non-compliance in Europe increased in August compared to the previous month. Three reports concerned the United States.
There were 166 reports in August, compared to 136 in July, 164 in June and 129 in May.
The issues listed are potential frauds. Non-compliance may result in investigations by EU Member State authorities. The details come from a monthly report published by the European Commission.
The data includes topics of suspected cross-border fraud shared between members of the Alert and Cooperation Network (ACN).
A total of 38 reports mentioned health foods, food supplements and fortified foods. Confectionery comes in second with 14 reviews, while fruit and vegetables come in third with 11.
The majority of problems were discovered through market checks. On 10 occasions, the detection method was an internal inspection of a company and 19 times, a consumer complaint. Two issues were detected from the whistleblower information.
Highlights of the month of August
Three alerts concerned the United States in August. These were steviol glycosides contained in a flavored drink; acesulfame K and sucralose in lemonade; and yohimbine in food supplements.
Examples of adulteration were beef contained in horse meat from Poland and other vegetable oils contained in extra virgin olive oil from Greece.
Titanium dioxide, mainly found in sweets, was a common problem. Three notifications concerned ethylene oxide present in products from India. Soudan 2 was found in curry powder from the Netherlands.
Record-breaking tampering incidents included gluten in gluten-free meatballs from Denmark and alleged fraudulent use of another operator’s identification for supplements in Spain.
Under the theme of traceability defects, there was suspicion of counterfeiting of origin of pistachios coming from Turkey instead of Iran as well as eggs of non-European origin labeled with an EU producer code. Another problem was the mismatch of labels and documents between duck meat from China and rice from Vietnam.
An unauthorized operator was the cause of some alerts. This included supplements in Germany, prime rib in Hungary and sausages in Austria.
Food products from Afghanistan were transported in inappropriate conditions and there was an attempt to illegally import products of animal origin from Moldova.
Several non-compliances related to ingredients not authorized in the EU, items evading border controls, as well as residues of veterinary medicines and pesticides above maximum residue limits (MRLs).
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