{"id":544404,"date":"2026-08-27T01:01:02","date_gmt":"2026-08-26T23:01:02","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/dev.phytocontrol.com\/uncategorized\/food-fraud-results-of-operation-opson-xi\/"},"modified":"2026-08-27T01:01:03","modified_gmt":"2026-08-26T23:01:03","slug":"food-fraud-results-of-operation-opson-xi","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/dev.phytocontrol.com\/en\/regulatory-watch\/food-fraud-results-of-operation-opson-xi\/","title":{"rendered":"Food fraud: results of Operation OPSON XI"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><\/p>\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Operations to combat food fraud target criminal networks that can seriously harm consumer health and safety.<\/p>\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">A new Operation OPSON XI targeting food fraud was carried out between December 2021 and May 2022. Coordinated by EUROPOL, 26 countries took part in this operation, resulting in the seizure of nearly 27,000 tonnes of counterfeit food. INTERPOL coordinated activities carried out outside the EU.<\/p>\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">National authorities carried out checks in customs areas, directly on the market and on products sold online throughout the food supply chain.<\/p>\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">The operation in figures, seizures and activities:<\/p>\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li>26,800 tonnes of illicit products seized<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>15 million litres of alcoholic beverages<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>74,000 cheques<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>80 arrest warrants<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>137 individuals reported to judicial authorities<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>175 criminal cases opened<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>2,078 administrative files opened<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>8 criminal networks disrupted<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">The main products seized, in order of quantity, are alcoholic beverages, cereals, grains and derived products, fruit and vegetables, food supplements and additives, sugary and confectionery products, meat and meat products, seafood products, dairy products and poultry products.<\/p>\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Among the fraud cases identified:<\/p>\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><strong><u>Wine:<\/u><\/strong> In Italy, a winery producer was selling wine to which water, sugar and natural flavourings had been added. In some cases, the alcohol content was also higher than the actual content.<\/p>\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><strong><u>Spices:<\/u><\/strong> In Spain, suspects imported gardenia extract from Asia to sell as saffron. National authorities investigated 3 companies, arrested 11 people and seized 10,000 kg of gardenia extract, which if sold as saffron would have been worth around EUR 750,000.<\/p>\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><strong><u>Meat:<\/u><\/strong> In Portugal, an operation was carried out against a clandestine slaughterhouse. Two houses suspected of being used as illegal pig slaughtering and roasting sites were inspected. The action resulted in the seizure of 60 piglet carcasses. Officers dismantled the sites, which had no licence, poor hygiene conditions and no veterinary controls.<\/p>\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><strong><u>Fish:<\/u><\/strong> France, Italy and Switzerland carried out sampling activities on fish. They checked whether the &#8216;freshness&#8217; indication declared on the label was &#8216;true&#8217; or &#8216;fraudulent&#8217;.<\/p>\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Samples were taken, then processed and analysed in accordance with standard operating procedure. The results provided fraud indicators, which will make future inspections more effective.<\/p>\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Please note that your Phytocontrol laboratory offers you authentication and food physico-chemistry analyses to identify food fraud. You can consult our COFRAC technical appendix No. 1-1904 available in your customer area or on the COFRAC website.<\/p>\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Need technical, regulatory or pricing information? Our customer service is available from 8am to 8pm, Monday to Friday at <a href=\"tel:+33800900775\">+33 800 900 775<\/a> or <a href=\"mailto:service-clients@phytocontrol.com\">service-clients@phytocontrol.com<\/a><\/p>\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">And to stay up to date with Phytocontrol news, join us on our <a href=\"https:\/\/www.linkedin.com\/company\/9369065\/\">LinkedIn<\/a><a href=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/laboratoirePHYTOCONTROL\"> <\/a> page!<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Operations to combat food fraud target criminal networks that can seriously harm consumer health and&hellip;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":8,"featured_media":28185,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[181],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-544404","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-regulatory-watch"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO Premium plugin v28.4 (Yoast SEO v28.5) - https:\/\/yoast.com\/product\/yoast-seo-premium-wordpress\/ -->\n<title>Food fraud: results of Operation OPSON XI - Phytocontrol<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"noindex, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Food fraud: results of Operation OPSON XI\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Operations to combat food fraud target criminal networks that can seriously harm consumer health and&hellip;\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/dev.phytocontrol.com\/en\/regulatory-watch\/food-fraud-results-of-operation-opson-xi\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Phytocontrol\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:publisher\" content=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/laboratoirePHYTOCONTROL\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2026-08-26T23:01:02+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2026-08-26T23:01:03+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/dev.phytocontrol.com\/app\/uploads\/2022\/11\/europol.png\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"700\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"400\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/png\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"L\u00e9a\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"L\u00e9a\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"2 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\\\/\\\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"Article\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/dev.phytocontrol.com\\\/en\\\/regulatory-watch\\\/food-fraud-results-of-operation-opson-xi\\\/#article\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/dev.phytocontrol.com\\\/en\\\/regulatory-watch\\\/food-fraud-results-of-operation-opson-xi\\\/\"},\"author\":{\"name\":\"L\u00e9a\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/dev.phytocontrol.com\\\/en\\\/#\\\/schema\\\/person\\\/b6615d9f6255172ec54877731e3b62a5\"},\"headline\":\"Food fraud: results of Operation OPSON XI\",\"datePublished\":\"2026-08-26T23:01:02+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2026-08-26T23:01:03+00:00\",\"mainEntityOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/dev.phytocontrol.com\\\/en\\\/regulatory-watch\\\/food-fraud-results-of-operation-opson-xi\\\/\"},\"wordCount\":407,\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/dev.phytocontrol.com\\\/en\\\/regulatory-watch\\\/food-fraud-results-of-operation-opson-xi\\\/#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\\\/\\\/dev.phytocontrol.com\\\/app\\\/uploads\\\/2022\\\/11\\\/europol.png\",\"articleSection\":[\"Regulatory watch\"],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\"},{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/dev.phytocontrol.com\\\/en\\\/regulatory-watch\\\/food-fraud-results-of-operation-opson-xi\\\/\",\"url\":\"https:\\\/\\\/dev.phytocontrol.com\\\/en\\\/regulatory-watch\\\/food-fraud-results-of-operation-opson-xi\\\/\",\"name\":\"Food fraud: results of Operation OPSON XI - Phytocontrol\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/dev.phytocontrol.com\\\/en\\\/#website\"},\"primaryImageOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/dev.phytocontrol.com\\\/en\\\/regulatory-watch\\\/food-fraud-results-of-operation-opson-xi\\\/#primaryimage\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/dev.phytocontrol.com\\\/en\\\/regulatory-watch\\\/food-fraud-results-of-operation-opson-xi\\\/#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\\\/\\\/dev.phytocontrol.com\\\/app\\\/uploads\\\/2022\\\/11\\\/europol.png\",\"datePublished\":\"2026-08-26T23:01:02+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2026-08-26T23:01:03+00:00\",\"author\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/dev.phytocontrol.com\\\/en\\\/#\\\/schema\\\/person\\\/b6615d9f6255172ec54877731e3b62a5\"},\"breadcrumb\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/dev.phytocontrol.com\\\/en\\\/regulatory-watch\\\/food-fraud-results-of-operation-opson-xi\\\/#breadcrumb\"},\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"https:\\\/\\\/dev.phytocontrol.com\\\/en\\\/regulatory-watch\\\/food-fraud-results-of-operation-opson-xi\\\/\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/dev.phytocontrol.com\\\/en\\\/regulatory-watch\\\/food-fraud-results-of-operation-opson-xi\\\/#primaryimage\",\"url\":\"https:\\\/\\\/dev.phytocontrol.com\\\/app\\\/uploads\\\/2022\\\/11\\\/europol.png\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\\\/\\\/dev.phytocontrol.com\\\/app\\\/uploads\\\/2022\\\/11\\\/europol.png\",\"width\":700,\"height\":400,\"caption\":\"Food fraud: results of Operation OPSON XII\"},{\"@type\":\"BreadcrumbList\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/dev.phytocontrol.com\\\/en\\\/regulatory-watch\\\/food-fraud-results-of-operation-opson-xi\\\/#breadcrumb\",\"itemListElement\":[{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":1,\"name\":\"Accueil\",\"item\":\"https:\\\/\\\/dev.phytocontrol.com\\\/en\\\/\"},{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":2,\"name\":\"Food fraud: results of Operation OPSON XI\"}]},{\"@type\":\"WebSite\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/dev.phytocontrol.com\\\/en\\\/#website\",\"url\":\"https:\\\/\\\/dev.phytocontrol.com\\\/en\\\/\",\"name\":\"Phytocontrol\",\"description\":\"Laboratoire d&#039;analyses\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"SearchAction\",\"target\":{\"@type\":\"EntryPoint\",\"urlTemplate\":\"https:\\\/\\\/dev.phytocontrol.com\\\/en\\\/?s={search_term_string}\"},\"query-input\":{\"@type\":\"PropertyValueSpecification\",\"valueRequired\":true,\"valueName\":\"search_term_string\"}}],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\"},{\"@type\":\"Person\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/dev.phytocontrol.com\\\/en\\\/#\\\/schema\\\/person\\\/b6615d9f6255172ec54877731e3b62a5\",\"name\":\"L\u00e9a\",\"image\":{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/secure.gravatar.com\\\/avatar\\\/596dd8ddc5587d4fa6d385b3be7df83487233933b2a48701410e4262697bd00a?s=96&d=mm&r=g\",\"url\":\"https:\\\/\\\/secure.gravatar.com\\\/avatar\\\/596dd8ddc5587d4fa6d385b3be7df83487233933b2a48701410e4262697bd00a?s=96&d=mm&r=g\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\\\/\\\/secure.gravatar.com\\\/avatar\\\/596dd8ddc5587d4fa6d385b3be7df83487233933b2a48701410e4262697bd00a?s=96&d=mm&r=g\",\"caption\":\"L\u00e9a\"}}]}<\/script>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO Premium plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"Food fraud: results of Operation OPSON XI - Phytocontrol","robots":{"index":"noindex","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"Food fraud: results of Operation OPSON XI","og_description":"Operations to combat food fraud target criminal networks that can seriously harm consumer health and&hellip;","og_url":"https:\/\/dev.phytocontrol.com\/en\/regulatory-watch\/food-fraud-results-of-operation-opson-xi\/","og_site_name":"Phytocontrol","article_publisher":"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/laboratoirePHYTOCONTROL","article_published_time":"2026-08-26T23:01:02+00:00","article_modified_time":"2026-08-26T23:01:03+00:00","og_image":[{"width":700,"height":400,"url":"https:\/\/dev.phytocontrol.com\/app\/uploads\/2022\/11\/europol.png","type":"image\/png"}],"author":"L\u00e9a","twitter_card":"summary_large_image","twitter_misc":{"Written by":"L\u00e9a","Est. reading time":"2 minutes"},"schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"Article","@id":"https:\/\/dev.phytocontrol.com\/en\/regulatory-watch\/food-fraud-results-of-operation-opson-xi\/#article","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/dev.phytocontrol.com\/en\/regulatory-watch\/food-fraud-results-of-operation-opson-xi\/"},"author":{"name":"L\u00e9a","@id":"https:\/\/dev.phytocontrol.com\/en\/#\/schema\/person\/b6615d9f6255172ec54877731e3b62a5"},"headline":"Food fraud: results of Operation OPSON XI","datePublished":"2026-08-26T23:01:02+00:00","dateModified":"2026-08-26T23:01:03+00:00","mainEntityOfPage":{"@id":"https:\/\/dev.phytocontrol.com\/en\/regulatory-watch\/food-fraud-results-of-operation-opson-xi\/"},"wordCount":407,"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/dev.phytocontrol.com\/en\/regulatory-watch\/food-fraud-results-of-operation-opson-xi\/#primaryimage"},"thumbnailUrl":"https:\/\/dev.phytocontrol.com\/app\/uploads\/2022\/11\/europol.png","articleSection":["Regulatory watch"],"inLanguage":"en-US"},{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https:\/\/dev.phytocontrol.com\/en\/regulatory-watch\/food-fraud-results-of-operation-opson-xi\/","url":"https:\/\/dev.phytocontrol.com\/en\/regulatory-watch\/food-fraud-results-of-operation-opson-xi\/","name":"Food fraud: results of Operation OPSON XI - Phytocontrol","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/dev.phytocontrol.com\/en\/#website"},"primaryImageOfPage":{"@id":"https:\/\/dev.phytocontrol.com\/en\/regulatory-watch\/food-fraud-results-of-operation-opson-xi\/#primaryimage"},"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/dev.phytocontrol.com\/en\/regulatory-watch\/food-fraud-results-of-operation-opson-xi\/#primaryimage"},"thumbnailUrl":"https:\/\/dev.phytocontrol.com\/app\/uploads\/2022\/11\/europol.png","datePublished":"2026-08-26T23:01:02+00:00","dateModified":"2026-08-26T23:01:03+00:00","author":{"@id":"https:\/\/dev.phytocontrol.com\/en\/#\/schema\/person\/b6615d9f6255172ec54877731e3b62a5"},"breadcrumb":{"@id":"https:\/\/dev.phytocontrol.com\/en\/regulatory-watch\/food-fraud-results-of-operation-opson-xi\/#breadcrumb"},"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"ReadAction","target":["https:\/\/dev.phytocontrol.com\/en\/regulatory-watch\/food-fraud-results-of-operation-opson-xi\/"]}]},{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/dev.phytocontrol.com\/en\/regulatory-watch\/food-fraud-results-of-operation-opson-xi\/#primaryimage","url":"https:\/\/dev.phytocontrol.com\/app\/uploads\/2022\/11\/europol.png","contentUrl":"https:\/\/dev.phytocontrol.com\/app\/uploads\/2022\/11\/europol.png","width":700,"height":400,"caption":"Food fraud: results of Operation OPSON XII"},{"@type":"BreadcrumbList","@id":"https:\/\/dev.phytocontrol.com\/en\/regulatory-watch\/food-fraud-results-of-operation-opson-xi\/#breadcrumb","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"Accueil","item":"https:\/\/dev.phytocontrol.com\/en\/"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"Food fraud: results of Operation OPSON XI"}]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https:\/\/dev.phytocontrol.com\/en\/#website","url":"https:\/\/dev.phytocontrol.com\/en\/","name":"Phytocontrol","description":"Laboratoire d&#039;analyses","potentialAction":[{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https:\/\/dev.phytocontrol.com\/en\/?s={search_term_string}"},"query-input":{"@type":"PropertyValueSpecification","valueRequired":true,"valueName":"search_term_string"}}],"inLanguage":"en-US"},{"@type":"Person","@id":"https:\/\/dev.phytocontrol.com\/en\/#\/schema\/person\/b6615d9f6255172ec54877731e3b62a5","name":"L\u00e9a","image":{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/596dd8ddc5587d4fa6d385b3be7df83487233933b2a48701410e4262697bd00a?s=96&d=mm&r=g","url":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/596dd8ddc5587d4fa6d385b3be7df83487233933b2a48701410e4262697bd00a?s=96&d=mm&r=g","contentUrl":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/596dd8ddc5587d4fa6d385b3be7df83487233933b2a48701410e4262697bd00a?s=96&d=mm&r=g","caption":"L\u00e9a"}}]}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dev.phytocontrol.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/544404","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/dev.phytocontrol.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/dev.phytocontrol.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dev.phytocontrol.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/8"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dev.phytocontrol.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=544404"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/dev.phytocontrol.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/544404\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":544405,"href":"https:\/\/dev.phytocontrol.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/544404\/revisions\/544405"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dev.phytocontrol.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/28185"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dev.phytocontrol.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=544404"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dev.phytocontrol.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=544404"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dev.phytocontrol.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=544404"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}