According to analyzes carried out by the Directorate General for Competition, Consumer Affairs and Fraud Control (DGCCRF), numerous anomalies exist in the seafood trade. The latest results only date from 2020, but show that the half of the checks revealed anomalies.
This is particularly concerned with labeling and compliance, reports
Ouest-France
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In total, 1,061 checks were carried out in 2020, in 899 establishments in 64 metropolitan and overseas departments.
“We noted anomalies in 51% of the establishments visited,” a spokesperson for the DGCCRF explained to our colleagues, adding that traders known to be unscrupulous were particularly targeted by the checks.
Misleading labeling and display
A total of 349 warnings were issued, along with 80 injunctions and 48 criminal proceedings.
This last figure is down from 2019, when 113 criminal proceedings were launched, but would relate to a real desire to deceive.
A behavior that impacts the consumer in the first place but will also change the price and therefore create a concern for competition between distributors.
The deceptions mainly concern the display and labeling of products with false or non-indicated origins or fishing techniques.
The DGCCRF thus noted 40% of anomalies in supermarkets and 60% in fishmongers.
Few size or species issues
And although it sometimes makes a lot of noise, sales of prohibited or undersized species remain infrequent.
For the first, 61% of the 83 samples proved to be compliant.
Size-related problems did not exceed 6% in the analyzes carried out.
Additional difficulty for checks: the presentation of certain products in a form that does not allow the size to be checked, in fillets or prepared for example.
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