$250M of Fake, Substandard Foods Seized in Global Operation

In a joint oper­a­tion between INTERPOL and Europol, €230 mil­lion of coun­ter­feit and sub­stan­dard food and bev­er­ages were seized. The oper­a­tion, which was car­ried out across 61 coun­tries, unveiled a wide range of food fraud across prod­ucts rang­ing from olive oil to lux­ury goods and alco­holic drinks.

Criminals will fake any type of food and drink with no thought to the human cost as long as they make a profit.- Françoise Dorcier, INTERPOL

Operation OPSON VI tar­geted the crim­i­nals behind fraud­u­lent food prac­tices and uncov­ered new trends in food fraud. Counterfeit min­eral water was among the fake prod­ucts detected dur­ing the global oper­a­tion.

In a press release, Françoise Dorcier, Coordinator of INTERPOL’s Illicit Goods and Global Health Programme said, ​“This oper­a­tion has once again shown that crim­i­nals will fake any type of food and drink with no thought to the human cost as long as they make a profit. Whilst thou­sands of coun­ter­feit goods have been taken out of cir­cu­la­tion, we con­tinue to encour­age the pub­lic to remain vig­i­lant about the prod­ucts they buy.”

61 coun­tries took part in OPSON VI from December 1, 2016 to March 31, 2017. Each coun­try car­ried out its own national oper­a­tion involv­ing police, cus­toms offi­cers, food reg­u­la­tory bod­ies and pri­vate sec­tor part­ners.

A total of 50,000 checks were made on shops, mar­kets, air­ports, sea­ports and indus­trial estates. By the end of the oper­a­tion, 9,800 tons of food, 26.4 mil­lion liters of liq­uids and 13 mil­lion items had been seized.

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Operation #Opson VI: Authorities in #Indonesia dis­cov­ered a fac­tory pro­duc­ing a range of fake condi­ments & sauces in unsan­i­tary con­di­tions pic.twitter.com/8dSlPqpGTL

— INTERPOL (@INTERPOL_HQ) April 25, 2017

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In Denmark, the oper­a­tion focused on olive oil. The Veterinary and Food Administration ana­lyzed sam­ples sold in super­mar­kets to check their com­pli­ance with label­ing reg­u­la­tions. Results showed that many of the ​“vir­gin olive oils” tested were in fact blends, or lam­pante oil.

Authorities in Norway and Austria also tested sam­ples of olive oil dur­ing the oper­a­tion. Their find­ings were not released but details will be reported later this year.

Participating coun­tries received spe­cific Europol train­ing on olive oil qual­ity prior to the oper­a­tion to aid them in detect­ing fraud.

Fraudulent food oper­a­tions were found to be rife and wide­spread. In Germany, hazel­nut prod­ucts were found to con­tain unde­clared peanuts, while in France, fake sea­son­ing cubes were being passed off as a lead­ing brand.

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.@INTERPOL_HQ SEIZED: 9,800 tonnes & 26.4 mil­lion litres of haz­ardous fake food & drink, incl. min­eral water, sea­son­ing cubes, seafood & olive oil #Opsonpic.twitter.com/Y65N7vNdff

— Europol (@Europol) April 25, 2017

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In Italy, min­eral water and wine came under the spot­light. 266,000 liters of fake min­eral water, pack­aged sim­i­larly to a trade­marked brand were dis­cov­ered. Counterfeit wine pos­ing as a famous, pro­tected brand was also seized.

In Greece, five peo­ple were arrested fol­low­ing the dis­cov­ery of alco­hol smug­gled from Bulgaria. Around 1,300 liters of vodka and whiskey were seized.

In Portugal, sar­dines past their prime were packed in an unli­censed plant. Meanwhile, in Spain, clams unfit for human con­sump­tion were sold.

In Ireland, crim­i­nals were caught red-handed trans­port­ing unre­frig­er­ated, unpacked and unla­beled meat in a van along with tobacco and alco­hol.

61 coun­tries par­tic­i­pated in OPSON VI, a rise from 57 in 2016. This was the sixth suc­ces­sive joint oper­a­tion.

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• Europol