More than 2,500 tonnes of illicit or fake food, including mozzarella, strawberries, eggs, cooking oil and dried fruit were seized in the last two months. The fake and sub-standard food and drink have been seized in 47 countries around the world as part of an Interpol – Europol operation.
Checks were carried out at shops, markets, airports, seaports and industrial estates during December 2014 and January 2015 and involved police, customs, national food regulatory bodies and partners from the private sector, according to Interpol. In Italy, 31 tonnes of seafood labeled as fresh was actually frozen before being doused with a chemical substance containing citric acid, phosphate and hydrogen peroxide to make the catch appear freshly caught. Also, Egyptian officials seized 35 tonnes of fake butter and dismantled a factory producing fake tea, while in South Sudan an unlicensed water bottling plant was shut down. Another investigation is ongoing in Norway following the seizure of counterfeit water bottles.
But alcohol was among the most seized product, including in the UK, where authorities discovered a plant making fake brand-name vodka. There were found more than 20,000 empty bottles ready for filling, hundreds of empty five-liter antifreeze containers which had been used to make the counterfeit alcohol, as well as a reverse osmosis unit used to remove the chemical’s color and smell. Fake whiskey was found in Uganda and in Rwanda officers raided a shop selling fake beer where genuine bottles which had been previously collected were re-filled for sale with a locally brewed product. Another criminal network producing fake whiskey was found in Thailand, where police seized nearly 20,000 liters of the counterfeit alcohol. In total, there were nearly 275,000 liters of drinks recovered across all regions
The US Food and Drugs Administration focused efforts on dietary supplements sent by mail with inspections at Los Angeles Airport resulting in the seizure of illicit substances. Countries which took part in the operation are Austria, Belgium, Benin, Belarus, Botswana, Bulgaria, Burundi, Colombia, Ivory Coast, Croatia, Czech Republic, Denmark, Ecuador, Egypt, Eritrea, Estonia, Finland, France, Hungary, Iceland, Ireland, Italy, Kenya, Latvia, Lithuania, Luxembourg, The Netherlands, Norway, Paraguay, Peru, Philippines, Portugal, Romania, Rwanda, South Korea, South Sudan, Spain, Sudan, Sweden, Tanzania, Thailand, Turkey, Uganda, Uruguay, United Kingdom, USA and Vietnam.