Tag Archives: raspberries

Susanne Kuehne, Decernis
Food Fraud Quick Bites

Food Fraud With Nasty Results

By Susanne Kuehne
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Susanne Kuehne, Decernis

Global food supply chains are complex and therefore quite vulnerable to errors or fraudulent activity. A company in Chile repackaged and falsely labeled cheap raspberries from China, reselling them as top-level organic Chilean raspberries in Canada. These raspberries were linked to a norovirus outbreak in Canada, sickening hundreds of people. A whistleblower complaint helped to uncover this fraudulent scheme that posed a significant risk to human health.

Raspberry, Decernis
Find records of fraud such as those discussed in this column and more in the Food Fraud Database. Image credit: Susanne Kuehne.

Resource

  1. Sherwood, D. (October 6, 2020). “How a Chilean raspberry scam made its way into Canada leading to a norovirus outbreak”. Reuters.
Susanne Kuehne, Decernis
Food Fraud Quick Bites

Precious Organic Raspberries

By Susanne Kuehne
No Comments
Susanne Kuehne, Decernis
Food fraud, raspberries
Find records of fraud such as those discussed in this column and more in the Food Fraud Database. Image credit: Susanne Kuehne

Even fresh, unprocessed produce is not excluded from food fraud. Chilean customs discovered a $12 million fraud of raspberries. The falsified customs declarations claimed wrong country of origin and fake organic declarations of fruit for export to Canada. An export company was convicted of declaring Chinese raspberries to be falsely labeled as organic raspberries from Chile; the responsible person was sentenced to probation and to pay a penalty.

Resource

  1. Cooperativa.cl (August 24, 2019). “Empresario fue condenado por exportar frambuesas chinas como producto nacional“. Retrieved from Cooperativa.cl