The report on the inspections carried out by ICQRF in 2019 is undoubtedly one of the best news in this nationwide emergency phase.
To the brilliant results of the official public controls performed in Italy by health authorities-and to reassurance that there is no risk of coronavirus transmission through food, anticipated by the Ministry of Health and confirmed from EFSA – is added the good news of the extraordinary efficiency of the Central Inspectorate for Quality Protection and Fraud Repression of Agrifood Products.
ICQRF, record checks
The ICQRF-a department of the MiPAAF consisting of about 700 officials, including 400 inspectors-was able to perform a record number of inspections in 2019. 55,539 in all, including 41,462 inspection activities and 14,077 samplings (resulting in up to a dozen analyses per sample). 27,683 operators inspected, 51,289 products checked.
Irregularities were found on 17.5 percent of the operators, 11.4 percent of the products and 10 percent of the samples analyzed were found to be irregular’. 72 thousand tons of goods seized, valued at more than 300 million euros. 395 crime reports and 4,446 administrative charges (+6%), plus 2,034 warnings served on operators. (1
‘The 2019operational results confirm the quality of the Italian control system and the ICQRF’s position among the world’s leading anti-fraud authorities in food.’
(2)
Made in Italy agribusiness has also been protected outside national borders and on the web. With a total of 513 interventions leading to the removal-on platforms such as Amazon, eBay and Alibaba-of misleading or falsely suggestive listings.
ICQRF’s interventions on the web
The Inspectorate has been engaged for years in the control of fraud and counterfeiting-even implicit ones, such as the phenomena of
Italian sounding
– on platforms such as eBay, Amazon. Also through Memoranda of Understanding for the protection of Italian agri-food products and their Geographical Indications (GIs, e.g., DOP, IGP, STG, DOCG, DOC, IGT), the ICQRF ‘dialogues directly with major global players by blocking misleading and/or suggestive advertisements of Italian products of excellence within hours.’
In the 2015-2019 period, the Inspectorate conducted as many as 3,276 interventions abroad and on the web. Of these, more than 1,500 interventions were carried out in conjunction with ecommerce operators, 1,284 in collaboration with wine protection consortia, and 485 ex officio. Operations focused on Prosecco (989 cases), Parmigiano Reggiano (437),
wine kits
(293). This was followed by fake Prosciutto di Parma (184 cases), Amarone della Valpolicella (176) and Tuscan extra virgin olive oil (139).
In 2019, the focus was on e-Bay (254 out of 513 cases) and Amazon (65). Still in first place is Prosecco (188 cases), followed by Tuscan extra virgin olive oil (81) and Parmigiano Reggiano (28).
The 340 sales blocks on web platforms mainly involved extra virgin olive oil (81, including 75 on eBay), Prosecco (61, including 47 on Amazon and 13 on eBay), and Parmigiano Reggiano (26 including 13 on AliBaba, 4 on Amazon, 9 on eBay).
Quality production controls
PDOs, PGIs and TSGs were the subject of 4,518 audits, in 2019. 3,683 inspections and 835 analytical checks on 3809 products and 2,243 operators. Irregularities found in 16 percent of operators, 16.1 percent of products-including label nonconformities, over whose control theICQRF has primary competence-and 4.1 percent of analytical outcomes.
There were 8,645 inspections of DOCG, DOC, IGT wines in 2019, including 5,859 inspections and 2,786 analyses. 4,419 operators and 8,265 products checked, of which 23.9 percent and 16.3 percent respectively were found to be irregular. 6% analytical nonconformities.
The organic sector, as usual, received the highest number of inspections overall:
– 6,689 inspections (5,131 inspectional and 1,558 analytical, overall +58% over 2018), on
– 3,037 operators and 4,749 products.
Nonconformities found in organic affect 15.5 percent of operators and 11.2 percent of products (also considering labeling and documentation issues) in the fruit and vegetables, wine, cereals and cereal products, oils and fats, and vegetable preserves sectors. 7.8% irregular analytical outcomes.
The fight against agropiracy
The report also reports on the most prominent operations in combating agropiracy. That is, to those criminal activities that Bill 25.2.20 on Agribusiness Crimes, as seen, aspires to punish with draconian penalties (up to 10.5 years’ imprisonment and 150,000 euros fine, in addition to disqualifying accessory penalties and confiscation of assets).
The Bad Juice operation led to the seizure of 1,411 tons of products (juices, jams and canned food) adulterated and falsely designated as organic, worth 4.850 million euros. The fraud was based on the use of bad apple juice concentrate-from fruit that had deteriorated or been contaminated with insecticides, herbicides and other substances not allowed in organic farming-sophisticated with water and sugary substances.
Ghost Wine
is the operation that uncovered the marketing of cheap wines with mendacious labels and quality marks (DOC, IGT, organic). The fraud was also committed by selling wines produced in other EU countries as if they were Italian. With the culmination of a wine of Spanish origin smuggled in as an Apulian PGI (!).
‘Cross and Delight’ , on the other hand, is the name of the investigation through which ICQRF inspectors foiled a maxi-fraud in the oil sector. Where large quantities of seed oils were adulterated by adding coloring substances (chlorophyll and beta-carotene) to come to market as extra virgin olive oils.
The extraordinary efficiency of official public controls cannot and must not be compromised by further cuts in the name of austerity, as has already happened in Italy and other EU countries. Keeping in mind, now more than ever, the unacceptable social cost of savings on essential public services.
Dario Dongo and Sabrina Bergamini
Notes
(1) ICQRF, Activity Report 2019,
(2) MiPAAF. ICQRF Operational Activity Report 2019 published. Press release 13.2.20
Dario Dongo, lawyer and journalist, PhD in international food law, founder of WIISE (FARE - GIFT - Food Times) and Égalité.
Journalist. Consumption, rights, nutrition, social, environment. Head of Consumers Help. She collaborated with ResetDOC, Il Riformista, La Nuova Ecologia, IMGPress.
