In the heat of big business there are almost always fraudulent practices. One of the phenomena that has more pull in the consumer sector is that of organic products, which in Spain have been growing in double digits for years . According to Nielsen, they increased 14% last year and these products are already in four out of every 10 Spanish homes.

Kantar Worldpanel points out that in Spain there are more than three million regular consumers of bio and organic products. Precisely because of the progress they are experiencing, food fraud has also reached this consumption trend.

The Civil Guard has carried out this year, within the so-called Operation Opson VIII, more than 2,500 controls and inspections in stores, markets, airports, seaports and industrial estates, in which it has detected more than 1,500 administrative infractions and 13 criminal offenses and has arrested or investigated 35 people. 300 tons of food and about 39,000 liters of fraudulent drinks have been intervened.

"We must bear in mind that the high price of these foods compared to conventional ones can be an incentive for fraudsters to try to deceive the consumer," says Aurelio del Pino, president of Aces, the association of Spanish supermarket chains.

Regulation

The Spanish bio market, as is the case in any country of the European Union, is subject to what is ordered by the EU organic production regulation. In this case, there is no development of national regulations and therefore this regulation applies exactly the same in all territories, as explained by Aces.

This practice of selling something that is not organic, explained sources in the sector, does not affect only the fresh: fruits, vegetables, vegetables. Products packaged with an organic and organic seal have increased by 14% over the past year, according to Nielsen, although in these cases, when packaged, these sources explain, "it is easier to detect fraud."

The European standard details exactly how the production and distribution processes of each and every one of the organic products should be, such as, for example, what type or quantity of treatments can be used at source.

Thus, to be able to label a product with the ecolabel it must be certified by a third party , either through a certification company or by the autonomous committees of organic farming. These certifiers "carry out a field work where they inspect and analyze the products and their environment, and ask the producer for an exhaustive documentation," explains Del Pino.

The bio jumps to the super

In addition, any company or subject that is part of the value chain, and therefore manipulates or intervenes in the process that takes the product from the origin to the consumer's basket, must also be certified, they explain from Aces.

This regulatory framework includes specialized or conventional stores that sell these types of products. In the latter case, they have to package the product so that it can be individually labeled and not mixed with the conventional product.

Before these products were only in specialized stores, but now supermarket chains are the leaders in sales. Carrefour, for example, has opened its Carrefour Bio format in Spain, which has already existed in France for years. Large commercial formats lead 20% of the organic market.

«Until a few years ago, consumers who demanded these products were a minority and they did so convinced by their own philosophy of life. Today, these products are part of the shopping cart of any type of consumer, and in this trend has had much to do with the effort of the industry and producers to achieve, through innovation, ”says the president of Aces.

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