Meat and fish top JRC fraud round-up

The round-up had beef burgers mixed with pork, soy and bread in Spain and fraudulent importation of shrimps from the species Pleoticus muelleri​ whose import has been banned in Brazil since 2013.

The Spanish Civil Guard (Guardia Civil​) accused Eurofrits​, a frozen products company of Burgos of adding pig meat, soy and bread to beef burgers and meatballs.

It said 14 people had been brought to justice for the alleged crimes as part of the operation which began in December 2015.

Meanwhile, in Operation Tripoli​, investigators seized 400kg of shrimps and found they were treated with sodium tripolyphosphate, a forbidden chemical used to retain water and artificially increase product weight.

The investigation began after an inspection in September 2015.

It found the Federal Inspection Service (SIF) seal was used to tell the consumer that the product was processed by an inspected company when this was not the case.

Also, in Puglia, Italy, the operation Federicus led to the discovery of malpractices in the cold cut sector and a hotel in Milan was suspected of selling low grade fish species instead of higher quality species proposed on the restaurant's menu.

The round-up was launched to give stakeholders the opportunity to counter issues.

It reflects media coverage and not the frequency of fraud in a country and/or concerning a product.