More details have emerged about national operations focusing on rice and blueberries as part of Operation Opson.
During Operation Opson In total, goods worth more than €91 million ($98.3 million) were withdrawn from the market.
The European Anti-Fraud Office (OLAF) coordinated an action that helped customs authorities of EU member states and Norway seize approximately 40,000 liters of illegal alcoholic drinks.
The operation, which ran from December 2023 to May 2024, aimed to identify and remove counterfeit and substandard food and drinks from the supply chain, while tackling the criminal networks behind these illegal products.
The OLAF-led operation uncovered sophisticated methods to infiltrate the EU market with inferior quality products – mainly beer, home-made alcohol and wine. Fraudsters used misleading packaging, false documents and false labels to sell these products to consumers.
It Customs authorities from Austria, Belgium, Bulgaria, Croatia, Denmark, France, Germany, Greece, Ireland, Italy, Lithuania, Norway, Poland, Portugal, Spain and Slovakia were involved.
Rice quality
In Sweden, Livsmedelsverket (the Swedish Food Agency) targeted the mislabelling of rice.
In the spring of 2024, several Swedish authorities, together with European authorities, checked wholesalers processing and selling rice. The risk-based targeted action checked more than 600 tonnes of rice, most of which was labeled as being of better quality than was actually the case.
Most of the rice was imported from outside the EU and sold on the Swedish market. Large retail chains sold some lots. Shortages were mainly found in rice from India and Pakistan.
The most common violation was misleading labeling. The label often stated that the rice was Basmati rice of the premium quality ‘1121’, but the packages contained rice of a lower quality or completely different types. Claiming that the rice is of better quality can increase profits and gain a competitive advantage.
Other problems included pests, expired rice, tampered date marking and a lack of traceability, which meant the company could not prove where it had purchased rice from. Five companies stopped selling and destroyed 4.2 tons of rice because their safety could not be guaranteed.
Blueberry results
In Germany, attention focused on products with the term ‘wild blueberries’ in the name or ingredient list. Substitution of wild blueberries with other blueberry varieties was investigated as a possible adulteration.
From December 2023 to May 2024, 70 samples labeled “wild blueberries” were examined in eight states. The Federal Office for Consumer Protection and Food Safety (BVL) said that 50 percent of the samples did not contain wild blueberries, but other fruits. Authorities focused mainly on canned fruit. However, frozen and dried products were also sampled.
Three-quarters of the canned fruits analyzed were incorrectly declared as wild blueberries. A sample of dried wild blueberries from online retailers was also judged to be misleading.
Officials in Berlin emphasized blueberries. Of the 28 canned blueberries examined at the Berlin-Brandenburg State Laboratory since 2021, 24 were considered misleading because they replaced wild blueberries with other varieties. Wild blueberries are generally traded at higher prices than other blueberry varieties.
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