Operation OPSON XIII – coordinated by the European Anti-Fraud Office (OLAF), with the participation of Europol and the authorities of 29 countries of the Old Continent – allowed the interception of food fraud and the seizure of goods for a total value of €91 million, between December 2023 and March 2024. (1)
The occasion is worth recalling the roles of Agri-Food Fraud Network (FFN) and the Alert and Cooperation Network (ACN), in whose broad sphere the valuable investigative activities are framed. And to note what is still missing, for private stakeholders in the agri-food supply chains.
1) OPSON
OPSON extension – from the Greek ὄψον, dish – is an international initiative, originally coordinated by Europol and Interpol, which aims to encourage control authorities to cooperate in combating food fraud. Its annual operations are generally focused on individual supply chains and product categories. For example, Operation Opson VIII, which in 2018 brought to light a complex system of food fraud involving defrosted tuna. (2)
The initiative is part of the platform EMPACT (European Multidisciplinary Platform Against Criminal Threats), which addresses the main organised crime threats affecting the EU. EMPACT strengthens intelligence, strategic and operational cooperation between national authorities, EU institutions and bodies and international partners. EMPACT runs in four-year cycles focusing on common EU crime priorities.
2) Operation OPSON XIII
Official controls coordinated under Operation OPSON XIII included 5.821 activities and led to the seizure of 22.000 tons of food, as well as approximately 850.000 liters of beverages (mostly alcoholic). Investigators reported 278 individuals to the judicial authorities, who issued 184 search warrants and 104 arrest warrants, thus dismantling 11 criminal networks.
3) OPSON XIII, the frauds disclosed
Food fraud disclosed in the Europol press release on the outcome of Operation OPSON XIII, see as protagonists the Italian Carabinieri (Nuclei Antisofisticazione e Sanità, NAS), the Spanish ‘Guardia Civil’, the French ‘Gendarmerie Nationale’ and the ‘Swiss Federal Police’. Thus:
-Guardia Civil, Carabinieri NAS and Europol arrested four people and seized approximately 120.000 cans of low-quality tuna and 45.000 litres of sunflower oil and pomace labelled as olive oil;
-throughout Spain, the Guardia Civil has intercepted food fraud involving oils, hams and cheeses. In Valencia, 80 tons of pickles adulterated with illegal colorants and preservatives;
-the Carabinieri NAS seized approximately 42 tons of adulterated oil, marketed as Italian extra virgin olive oil. In addition to 71 tons of oily substances and 623 liters of chlorophyll used for adulteration
-in Italy, the Carabinieri NAS have dismantled a criminal network dedicated to the counterfeiting of wines with protected designation of origin (PDO) and protected geographical indication (PGI). 60.000 liters of wine seized
-between France, Switzerland and Italy Gendarmerie Nationale, Carabinieri NAS and Police Federale Swiss, with the support of Europol and Eurojust, dismantled a criminal network that counterfeited luxury French wines with Appellation d’Origine Protégée (AOP), to resell them at sky-high prices (up to 15.000 euros per bottle). Six arrests and seizures for a value of 1,5 million euros.
4) Agri-Food Fraud Network (FFN)
It is useful to frame the OPSON initiative within the broader scope of the Agri-Food Fraud Network-FFN, established in 2013, whose participants include:
-European Commission (DG Sante, DG Agri), which provides monthly bulletins which are unfortunately still untimely (3)
– liaison bodies designated by each Member State, as well as by Switzerland, Norway and Iceland
-EC Knowledge Centre for Food Fraud and Quality (Joint Research Centre), for the sharing of expertise
– European Anti Fraud Office (OLAF) and Europol for the coordination of investigations on an international scale.
5) Alert and Cooperation Network (ACN)
Alert and Cooperation Network (ACN), in turn, sees the participation of:
-European Commission
-EFTA Member States (European Food Trade Agreement. EU-27, Norway, Iceland, Switzerland and Liechtenstein) and Northern Ireland, through their respective ‘Single Contact Points’
-European Food Safety Authority (the Authority)
-EFTA Surveillance Authority (ESA).
ACN integrates, from 2021, the four networks:
-RASFF (Rapid Alert System for Food and Feed)
– AAC (Administrative Assistance and Cooperation Network)
– FFN (Agri-Food Fraud Network)
– PHN (Plant Health Network).
The aim of ACN is to enable these networks – to which the ‘Animal Welfare Network’ and the ‘Pet Animals Network’ are added – to easily exchange information and cooperate between the various competent authorities, through the iRASFF system. (4)
6) What is missing?
Monthly reports of the European Commission on suspected food fraud (FFN), as well as the broader annual ones (ACN), still provide summary and inevitably late reports (3,5).
These reports, although out of date, can be useful to the competent authorities who can access the reserved area of the iRASFF system and collect useful information to stop food frauds currently in progress and prevent their repetition.
Private operators – who have the primary responsibility for ensuring food safety – remain to this day excluded from timely and accurate knowledge of emerging risks of food fraud. (6)
Dario Dongo
Footnotes
(1) Europol. EUR 91 million worth of counterfeit and substandard food seized in Europe-wide operation. 23.10.24 https://tinyurl.com/vx2s22sc
(2) Dario Dongo. Tuna thawed with additives, the giant food fraud unpunished in EU. Food Times. 15.7.21
(3) European Commission, DG Sante. Monthly reports on EU Agri-Food Fraud suspicions https://tinyurl.com/bdftcvch
(4) Commission Implementing Regulation (EU) 2019/1715 laying down rules for the functioning of the information management system for official controls and its system components (the IMSOC Regulation) https://tinyurl.com/46v93raj
(5) Marta Strinati. Contaminated Food and Food Fraud in the EU. ACN Report 2023. GIFT (Great Italian Food Trade). 7.10.24
(6) Dario Dongo. Food fraud, a systematic research. GIFT (Great Italian Food Trade).13.8.24
Dario Dongo, lawyer and journalist, PhD in international food law, founder of WIISE (FARE - GIFT - Food Times) and Égalité.