The Civil Guard has proceeded to the arrest of 22 people for their participation in the sale of 253 tons of food not suitable for human consumption in the province of Las Palmas. The investigation was carried out in collaboration with the technical inspectors of Public Health, of the Sanitary Inspection and Laboratory Service of the Directorate of the Health Area of Gran Canaria.
The events began in December 2018 as a result of an inspection carried out by Public Health inspectors at an establishment in Las Palmas de Gran Canaria dedicated to the wholesale sale of fresh, refrigerated and frozen food between different establishments on the islands, especially Gran Canaria, Tenerife, Fuerteventura and Lanzarote.
Given the volume of merchandise that was stored in the cold rooms and the impossibility of verifying at that time whether all of it complied with food safety requirements, the products were immobilized and the warehouse was sealed to prevent the commercialization of products not suitable for human consumption.
After verifying all the merchandise, they found irregularities such as an expired preferred consumption or expiration date; replacement of original labels with false ones with updated dates; meats that, according to the indication on their labeling, should be kept refrigerated, were frozen and past their expiration date for consumption; pieces of meat, which originally came vacuum-packed with a label inside, had a cut in the wrapping, lacking their original internal labeling, which was replaced by another false label that had been attached to the outside of the packaging and hiding the cut made, in addition to a lot of merchandise for which it was not possible to trace its traceability due to the lack of documentation justifying its legal origin.
Due to the risk to public health that these events posed, all the merchandise was immobilized and the activity was suspended as a precautionary measure, in addition to the seizure of false labels with the brands, logos and data of the manufacturing companies.
After analyzing the seized documentation, it was possible to locate and immobilize 900,000 kilos of meat acquired by two other distributors and several restaurants that had not yet put it on the market and that was not suitable for human consumption because it was considered an animal by-product.
For these events, 22 people responsible for eight establishments who allegedly knew the expiration date of the merchandise and acquired it at a lower price than established have been arrested.
The investigation has been carried out by the Nature Protection Service (Seprona) of the Civil Guard of Las Palmas in collaboration with the Technical Inspectors of Public Health, TISP, of the Sanitary Inspection and Laboratory Service of the Directorate of the Health Area of Gran Canaria. Operation BIFE has been directed by the Investigating Court No. 1 of Las Palmas de Gran Canaria and those responsible for these events are being investigated for alleged continued crimes against Public Health, Document Forgery, Fraud and Against Industrial Property.