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Today, the Commission is publishing the 2019 annual report of the EU Food Fraud Network and the System for Administrative Assistance and Food Fraud (AAC-AA and AAC-FF). The report highlights examples of EU coordinated cases as well as statistics on suspected cases food fraud through the Administrative Assistance and Cooperation System (the AAC-FF System).
There was an increase in the number of requests for administrative assistance concerning suspicion of food fraud, from 234 in 2018 to 292 in 2019. The steady increase in the number of requests for administrative assistance within the Food Fraud Network confirms that, over years, cooperation in Europe between Member States has strengthened. Many investigations have ended successfully, with arrests and confiscation of goods prohibited on the EU market.
The EU Food Fraud Network is also engaged in Operation OPSON - a joint Europol/Interpol initiative targeting trafficking in fake and substandard food and beverages, which is coordinated by Europol’s Intellectual Property Crime Coordinated Coalition and Interpol.
Based on data analysis and its own lines of inquiry into the fraud, in 2019, the Commission created 70 requests in the system, calling on different countries to investigate and follow-up the requests. The Commission also continued coordinating actions on illicit practices concerning notably animal-by-products, tuna and European eels.
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