Three men have been convicted and sentenced for their roles in a conspiracy to sell at least 30 metric tons of horse meat as beef. The owner of a Danish supplier was sentenced to 3.5 years, while the company’s accountant received a suspended sentence. In addition, the owner of a London meat processor was given a 4.5- year sentence. The fraud was discovered in 2013, when the Food Safety Authority of Ireland found horse meat in a shipment detained for inspection in Northern Ireland. According to The Guardian, inspectors found microchips for three horses previously owned as pets or riding horses. The scheme reportedly may have involved as many as 50,000 horses from across Europe. Additional details about the scheme appear in Issues 560 and 641 of this Update. Issue 643
Category Archives Europe
European Commission President Jean-Claude Juncker has reportedly indicated the EU will issue guidelines discouraging companies from selling apparently identical food products across Europe but using inferior ingredients in the foods sold in the eastern part of the continent. The Czech Republic's agriculture minister has asserted that his country is Europe's "garbage can" because companies produce their foods with cheaper ingredients but sell them with identical branding. Hungary, Poland, Bulgaria, Romania and Slovakia have also objected to the practice, which multiple studies have purportedly confirmed. Juncker reportedly said the EU would issue guidelines on how to interpret existing rules in September 2017 and did not rule out further legislation to combat the discrimination. See Reuters, July 27, 2017. Issue 642
Europol has announced the arrests of 66 people following a four-year investigation into an organized-crime group accused of selling horsemeat "not suitable for consumption" as beef products. The investigation began in 2013 after Irish authorities found products sold as beef burgers that contained horsemeat and led to a Dutch man in Spain alleged to be the leader of the scheme. According to Europol's July 16, 2017, press release, "Investigators concluded that the Spanish element of this organisation was a small part of the whole European structure controlled by the Dutch suspect." Issue 641
Italian food producers reportedly disagree on how to define whether a food product is "made in Italy" in accordance with the country's attempt to distinguish food produced in Italy, such as parmesan cheese or prosecco, from similar foods produced outside of the country. The dispute centers on whether foods manufactured in Italy using foreign ingredients may be labeled as "Made in Italy." According to Reuters, Parmesan and prosecco producers argue against such foods receiving the rights to use the label, while pastamaker Barilla asserts that its foods are just as Italian because the company is Italian despite manufacturing about half of its pasta in plants outside of Italy. See Reuters, June 2, 2017. Issue 637
The U.K. Advertising Standards Authority (ASA) upheld a complaint arguing an advertisement for Arla Foods’ organic milk was misleading because it included the statements “Good for the land” and “helping support a more sustainable future.” ASA reviewed evidence the company provided about its organic farming methods but concluded that the dairy had failed to substantiate its claim that organic milk production has an “overall positive impact on the environment, taking into account its full life cycle.” Accordingly, the agency ruled that the ad was misleading and told Arla not to make environmental claims about their products unless they could be substantiated. Issue 637
The European Food Safety Authority (EFSA) has issued a statement rejecting an Italian study claiming a link between the use of the sweetener sucralose and cancer in mice. The EFSA Journal’s review of a 10-year study conducted by the Ramazzini Institute criticized the study’s design and methodology, concluding that available data does not support the institute’s claim that sucralose may cause lymphoma or leukemia in mice. Among other criticisms, the panel said the design introduced too many variable factors that could make the data difficult to interpret, and there was no demonstrated dose-response relationship between exposure to sucralose and incidence of cancer. EFSA also pointed to the study’s failure to establish a cause-effect relationship in epidemiological studies and said there was no reliable evidence of in vivo or in vitro genotoxicity. Issue 634
The Panel of Food Additives and Nutrient Sources added to Food, a branch of the European Food Safety Authority (EFSA), has conducted a reassessment on the effects of acacia gum used in food products and reportedly found 30,000 milligrams per person per day to be well-tolerated. The scientific opinion apparently found no carcinogenic or other adverse effects of acacia gum, which is "unlikely to be absorbed intact and is slightly fermented by intestinal microbiota," at the refined exposure assessment for the reported uses of the ingredient as a food additive. Issue 631
Italy has reportedly proposed new legislation that would require food manufacturers to include country-of-origin labeling (COOL) on all pre-packaged food labels or face fines of up to €18,000. Under the proposal, food-product labels must list an Italian address for the food’s production facility or indicate that the food is made outside of the country. Italy’s COOL initiative for dairy products takes effect April 18, 2017, and a similar initiative for pasta products is pending. See Food Navigator, April 10, 2017. Issue 631
A majority of EU countries reportedly voted against allowing the cultivation of two genetically modified (GM) types of maize as well as the extension of approved cultivation areas for another GM maize already grown in Spain. Neither vote was decisive under EU rules, which require 65 percent of countries’ votes to decide, so the determination will go to European Commission President Jean-Claude Juncker. See Reuters, March 27, 2017. In an April 4, 2017, press release, members of European Parliament urged the European Commission to halt plans to allow the import of GM maize, highlighting "the lack of data on the many subcombinations of the variety—all of which would also be authorised" and arguing for reform of the GM authorization procedure. Issue 630
The Hungarian National Assembly is reportedly considering a proposed ban on Soviet and Nazi symbols that would impose fines of up to $6.97 million and a potential prison sentence on businesses using such marks, likely including Heineken and its red star logo. The ban targets symbols related to Hungary's years of Nazi occupation and decades of communist rule, including the swastika, hammer and sickle, arrow cross and red star. Hungary's Deputy Prime Minister Zsolt Semjen, a co-sponsor of the bill, reportedly called Heineken's red star logo "obvious political content" and would not deny that the bill was retaliation for a lengthy legal battle between Heineken and a brewery in Transylvania, a region of Romania home to many ethnic Hungarians. See Reuters, March 20, 2017. Issue 628
