After several fruit and vegetable checks in stores and supermarkets in the Tarn-et-Garonne department, the State services have noted numerous frauds on their origins and on the mentions of the products. Resellers take advantage of the craze for short circuits to deceive the consumer.
Residents of Tarn-et-Garonne and tourists, keep your eyes peeled when choosing your fruits and vegetables. The health crisis has changed consumption habits. The search for quality local products has led to the development of sales in “short circuits” or directly from the producer. A godsend for some unscrupulous dealers. “Organic”, “local” or “from our farms”. The State services have indeed spotted several practices in this sector, to deceive the consumer… We come back to these frauds with a few figures to remember.
Throughout the year, reinforced checks are carried out in the fruit and vegetable sector to ensure compliance with the regulations and the exact origin of the products.
Investigators from the Competition, Commission and Fraud Prevention (CCRF) department carried out 109 checks with various operators in the sector: supermarkets, shops, producers, wholesalers, etc.
The summer period is considered one of the peak times for the consumption of vegetables, but especially fruit. After all the checks carried out on approach or during the summer, one figure stands out: 21%. It corresponds to the global anomaly rate calculated concerning the marketing conditions and theusurpation of promotional mentions for commercial purposes: “organic”, “local”…
Breaches and violations in 39% of businesses
In 39% of the sedentary establishments checked: supermarkets and medium-sized stores, shops, breaches and infringements were observed. It is mostly aboutabsence of display of the origin of the products or of the obligatory mentions during retail sale. There are also false origins, products advertised as coming from France, but which actually come from abroad and vice versa.
For the CCRF investigators, this translates for the largest structures into poor management of the departments and a lack of knowledge of the regulations for the smaller ones, without there necessarily being any fraudulent intentions. These establishments were the subject of six warnings and one injunction.
The markets are not spared by these practices either, even if the anomaly rate is much lower: 23%. 7 warnings have however been drawn up by the State authorities concerning most of the time the absence of display on the country of origin of the product.
Fraudulent practices down compared to 2022
And while these test results may seem alarming, they are improving. Last year, in 2022 the results were more significant in terms of the fraud mentioned. Consumers can report food products by going to the platform Signal Cons.
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