Food Fraud EU 2019 report
22 May 2020
The European Commission has published the 2019 annual report of the EU Food Fraud Network and the System for Administrative Assistance and Food Fraud (AAC-AA and AAC-FF). The report highlights examples of EU coordinated cases as well as statistics on suspected cases food fraud through the Administrative Assistance and Cooperation System (the AAC-FF System).
The report indicates that there were 18 cases of fraud related with fruit and vegetables in the year 2019. This includes ‘use of unapproved treatment of fruits and vegetables with pesticides (unauthorised chemical treatment)’. The report also mentions: ‘there are many requests for products that were deceitfully labelled, as ‘organic’ but, due to pesticide residues detected, could not be considered as such. The misleading labelling often leads to other issues as a direct consequence’.
There was an increase in the number of requests for administrative assistance concerning suspicion of food fraud, from 234 in 2018 to 292 in 2019. The steady increase in the number of requests for administrative assistance within the Food Fraud Network confirms that over years cooperation in Europe between Member States has strengthened. Many investigations have ended successfully, with arrests and confiscation of goods prohibited on the EU market.
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22 May 2020