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The 2022 annual report of the Alert and Cooperation Network (ACN) has just been published.
In 2022, the number of notifications exchanged by the Food Fraud Network (FFN) reached a total of 600, with a significant increase compared to 2021 (407).
The countries that reported the most suspected fraud were Germany (26.5% of notifications), Belgium (21%) and France (13.3%).
As regards the origin of the products reported in the system, 72.7% concerned goods from within the EU and 26.7% from outside the EU.
For products from the EU:
- 15.4% of cases concerned Spain (suspected adulteration of squid-based products, mislabelling of olive oil as extra virgin olive oil),
- 12.9% of cases concerned the Netherlands (misdescription and smuggling of animal products).
For products not originating in the EU:
- 21% concerned China (suspected adulteration of honey, misdescription of fish products),
- 12% concerned India (suspected adulteration of shrimp with undeclared water).
The most frequently reported product categories were as follows:
- Honey and royal jelly (15.7%): adulteration of honey with foreign sugars.
- Live animals (8.3%) excluding cats and dogs, especially horses: lack of control with falsification of documents, food unfit for human consumption.
- Meat and meat products (except poultry) (7.7%): smuggling, imports, production, slaughter, illegal trade, labelling errors.
- Fish and fish-based products (7.7%): falsification by replacing fish with lower-value species or with a processed product, application of an unapproved treatment.
- Fats and oils (6.8%): mislabelling (sale of olive oil as extra virgin olive oil).
- Poultry and poultry-based products (6.17%): water added to chicken, misleading product labelling (freezing date, quantity and/or quality).
- Dietetic foods, food supplements and fortified
