The top 10 of the biggest food fraudsters in Germany

The Top 10 Food Fraud: Be Careful Especially When Buying On The Internet
Black sheep are available anytime, anywhere. Food fraud, also known as "food fraud", has existed since traded with food and money is earned. Addition, substitution, manipulation and misrepresentation - in these four categories could be divided into counterfeits in food, cosmetics and dietary supplements. This reported Dr. Helmut Tschiersky, President of the Federal Office for Consumer Protection and Food Safety (BVL) at the International Workshop of Food Checkers in Berlin in mid-October 2017.

Jan Homma, inspector at the Dutch Food and Goods Authority, quoted the top 10 foods that struck Europe as one of the most frequent frauds in Europe in recent years. Olive oil is at the top of the list. Since much more extra virgin olive oil is offered on the market than can actually be obtained from the quantity of olives harvested, it can be assumed that some of the products offered will be misrepresented.

Wrong olive oil pretended to be a high quality product. (Image: Syda Productions / fotolia.com)

The discovery of another type of fraud involving Italian olive oil in 2016 Birgit Zimmermann from the Bavarian State Office for Health and Food Safety: As part of a routine inspection in the catering industry found the inspectors in a table bottle labeled as olive oil, a mixture of cheaper sunflower and soybean oil mixed with chlorophyll. About 17,000 liters of it were according to papers within six months for sale. As part of transnational investigations, the Italian authorities arrested a total of 39 people and closed seven companies. The seized stocks, including 250 kilograms of chorophyll and beta carotene and 33,000 labels were destroyed.

Other places are followed by fish and seafood, organic food, milk and mixed milk drinks, honey and maple syrup, fruit juices and berries, coffee, tea and herbal teas, wine and spirits, olives, spices and saffron. In addition, counterfeit products such as slimming products, sexual enhancers, dietary supplements and cosmetics are being traded again and again over the Internet.

A supposedly all-natural slimming pill in effervescent form distributed via Instagram contained 20 mg of sibutramine and caused the death of a young woman. Homma therefore advises consumers to order products only from trusted Internet service providers. Relevant seals such as TÜV, Trusted Shops, or EHI-approved online shop represent such a quality feature. Ute Gomm, bzfe