The excellences of Italian agri-food are increasingly popular in the catering offer. DOP and IGP add value, to the menu as well as to the bill. But when the promise turns out to be a scam, even the innkeeper risks jail. And there is no escape from RAC, the Agro-Food Department of the Carabinieri.
RAC, a shower of sanctions
In the month of April 2019 alone, RAC officers proceeded with inspections and charges against a number of restaurateurs. They falsely claimed the use of DOP and IGP products in some of their dishes, but instead used lower value and quality ingredients.
Frauds unmasked by the RAC officers concern some of the most famous and appreciated specialties among DOP and IGP (here the complete list updated to April 2019). In detail,
– the focaccia di Recco with IGP cheese. Registered among geographical indications in 2015, it is widely imitated, often with results far from the original. Even the chefs on TV usurp the name, infuriating the Protection Consortium. But the tasty puff pastry filled with fresh cheese, to evoke the territory of Recco, must meet the characteristics indicated in the IGP specification. (1) These have been found partially or completely absent in the focaccias checked by the RAC of Turin in numerous bakeries, pizzerias and restaurants. From Pavia to La Spezia, widespread sanctions of 28 thousand euros.
– Parmigiano Reggiano DOP, Mozzarella di Bufala Campana DOP and Gorgonzola DOP are instead the protected designation products improperly evoked in the menus of some restaurants in the capital. The RAC of Rome ascertained that instead of the mentioned fine ingredients, restaurateurs used various hard cheeses, mixed milk mozzarellas, blue cheeses ‘Made in Germany’. Thus proceeded to the contestation of the crime of fraud in commerce.
Commercial fraud. Whoever, in the exercise of a commercial activity, or in a shop open to the public, delivers to the buyer a movable thing instead of another, or a movable thing, by origin, provenance, quality or quantity, different from that declared or agreed, is punished, if the fact does not constitute a more serious crime, with imprisonment up to two years or with a fine up to two thousand sixty-five euros’ (penal code, article 515).
The ‘Cambonzola’ comes to mind, one of the many counterfeits of ‘Made in Italy’ made in the German area which in 2015 our site GIFT (Great Italian Food Trade) publicly denounced.
Attention to suppliers
The restaurateur is always responsible for the truthfulness of the information offered on the menu. Therefore commits fraud, for example, when presenting as ‘blast chilled’ fish that is instead frozen. Or when calling ‘mozzarella’ the common ‘stretchy cheese’, on pizza or sandwiches. And risks the charge of fraud even when using fake DOP and IGP, more or less (un)knowingly.
The RAC have started the spring cleaning, administrative sanctions of over 30 thousand euros in just April 2019. In addition to the reports of criminal offenses, the operations thwarted frauds related to five protected designation products.
– Speck Alto Adige IGP. 1.5 tons of fake speck were seized in the autonomous provinces of Trento and Bolzano by the Parma RAC. Goods seized at producer companies and points of sale, valued at 13,600 euros.
– Prosciutto di Parma DOP. 0.3 tons of hams (24 legs) were seized in a ham factory in Parma for violation of the regulations. The certification documents, fallout from the ‘Prosciuttopoli’ scandal, did not report the birth dates of the pigs used.
– Mozzarella di Bufala Campana DOP. 0.9 tons of packaging, 26 thousand packages intended to wrap mixed milk mozzarellas (buffalo and cow) falsely offered as Mozzarella di Bufala Campana DOP. The RAC of Rome intervened in two dairies, in the provinces of Naples and Caserta. (2)
– Ricotta of adulterated buffalo. In one of the above-mentioned dairy farms in Campania, the addition of sugar to buffalo ricotta was also discovered, to sweeten the flavor. The carabinieri seized 15 kg of refined sugar, intended for sweetening – a typical trick in wine production in France and Germany – of ricotta. The Campania operation concluded with the denunciation of three people to the judicial authority, for the crimes of fraud in commerce and sale of food substances not genuine as genuine.
– Pistachio of Bronte PDO. Even the famous Sicilian pistachio, like the other protected quality products mentioned above, is counterfeited in its own territory. Administrative sanctions of 9,000 euros in two commercial establishments in the provinces of Catania and Messina.
Marta Strinati e Dario Dongo
Notes
(1) The characteristics of Recco IGP focaccia are indicated on https://www.focacciadirecco.it/index.php/la-focaccia/metodo-di-produzione.html
(2) We recall the singular case of the ‘MuMu Mozzarella Tokyo PDO‘, reported by the PDO protection consortium but actually made with the collaboration of two dairies belonging to the consortium itself
Professional journalist since January 1995, she has worked for newspapers (Il Messaggero, Paese Sera, La Stampa) and magazines (NumeroUno, Il Salvagente). Author of investigative reports on food, she published the book 'Reading labels to know what we eat'.
Dario Dongo, lawyer and journalist, PhD in international food law, founder of WIISE (FARE - GIFT – Food Times) and Égalité.
