Report exposes food fraud in EU

THE European Consumer Organization (BEUC) recently hit producers of meat products in its new report “Close-up on the meat we eat – Consumers want honest labels.” The group said that still many meat products sold across the continent are not labelled properly or do not contain the correct ingredients. It uncovered practices in the industry where companies deliberately lie about the amount of meat contained in their products, avoid indicating additives on product labels, use substitute meat or illegal ingredients, and so on. Such fraudulent practices were reported by European consumer organizations that tested products between April 2014 and August 2015.

In its report, the BEUC also presented its recommendations such as clarifying the legal meanings of meat preparation and product; increasing systematic checks on the addition of water to meat products; and more frequent checks to ensure food labels are complete, accurate and not misleading.