The Food Mafia - How Criminals Infiltrate the Global Food Supply Chain | ENDEVR Documentary

[Music] do we really know what's in our food lasagna with hem meat artificial [Music] steaks falsely advertised olive oil tuner with nitrates the list of counterfeit food products is endless everything can be faked from the most basic product to expensive [Music] ingredients it's a trade of tens of billions of Euros that runs quietly across our borders to dive into food fraud is to embark on a journey into an unknown land whistleblowers and Factory workers kept in the dark will reveal Hidden Truths courageous journalists and persistent prosecutors will help us understand what goes on behind the scenes the fight is on against this serious crime that involves everyone from criminals to Mafia leaders the outcome is uncertain as these traffickers operate within a gigantic Market through which all our food transits how did they manage to gain control over our food L hidden scandalous practices are going to be revealed an unprecedented investigation into the world of food [Music] [Music] fraud food products are recalled from Supermarket shelves on a regular basis most of the time we don't even notice [Music] it yet it makes us doubt our food to which we devote a large part of our lives and which is as essential as the air we breathe [Music] sometimes the contents can be [Music] misleading it is late 2012 in Ireland the director of food supervision notices that the price of beef has dropped he orders DNA sampling of meat from 27 seven commercially sold Burgers we found one product with about one3 horse DNA in it and which was just an incredible finding we went back and checked we double checked and we travel check because we understood that if we were to go out public with such a story it was going to have you know quite an effect it started out as hamburger then lasagna then m and ravioli prevention tests in the spring of 2013 revealed horse meat in products where it was not expected at the time we thought it was an Irish problem turned out to be a global problem and products have been withdrawn from shelves in places like Singapore Hong Kong in some of the Caribbean countries uh so really we we are looking at what's really has developed into a massive fr it was a fraud in the world of minced meat products the most common meat product especially in ready-made meals this Scandal could have gone unnoticed like many others but the Irish authorities have made this public and their Revelations have raised an unprecedented wave of outrage ingred kagle started her career as an investigator on this case she is a member of food watch a European organization that protects consumers this ingredient replacement involved 4.5 million ready to eat meals distributed by the biggest brands throughout Europe who was able to set up such an operation a large scale investigation was launched a number of Clues led to the Netherlands and mobilized the Dutch fraud [Music] police where is the source of this that was the big question who put the the horse meat inside the beef products Karen gusau is the head of a department that has the same investigative power as a Narcotics Squad 17 detectives and financial analysts are in charge of tracking down fraudsters the main thing that we do when we carry out criminal investigations uh is to reconstruct the money flow and the flow of goods and connect these together the Dutch police investigated the Obscure networks of minced meat they first identified the manufacturers who make beef recipes Behind These manufacturers they found several wholesalers these wholesalers worked with Traders Market Specialists who buy and sell online in quantities of hundreds of thousands of tons [Music] the police identified a Dutch meat Trader Yan Fon so Yan fast is actually someone we've known for a long time time he first caught our attention in 2008 um when we arrested him exactly because of this fact so we were hoping uh that would scare him off but then in thir 2013 we discovered that he hadn't stopped to cover his tracks Yan Fen moved to Belgium where he teamed up with among others the owner of this Warehouse here they stored Frozen horse meat which was half the price of beef € per kilo instead of four his profits were estimated at € 20 million EUR per year Yan Fen had to hire an office space in a big freezer complex he had an employee that was changing labels daily he had businesses in in Cyprus and in other countries he made a whole business of it it was his daily work that doesn't sound easy to me Yan Fen was the head of a huge Network his company was registered in Cyprus and imported horse meat from Canada and Romania this meat was then sold to his associate wholesalers the two main ones were located in Belgium and France it was at these companies that the fraud took place the horse meat was transformed into beef by the magic of a label the wholesalers sent the fake minced meat to Luxembourg to a manufacturer of ready-made meals these fake products were distributed to hundreds of [Music] supermarkets this Collective misconduct has angered a man man who is at the heart of this industry Kristoff brus had been working for 20 years as a Trader in major food processing groups Kristoff brus has decided to break the silence as he himself has committed fraud in 2013 a whistleblower exposed widespread fraudulent practices in the food processing industry Kristoff Bru's findings did not provoke the sort of reaction he was expecting among the manufacturers however his outrage and that of millions of European citizens has forced the European authorities to act it is here in Brussels that the major rules concerning food are written up it is then up to the individual states to implement them for Eric Marin an official at the European commission the horse meat scandal known as horse gate was a turning point Eric Marine was proud of the European health surveillance system he discovered that Europe is not well equipped to deal with this new problem that is affecting our food fr the food fraud network was created for this European officials struggle all year long to detect and track down counterfit food products all accidental modifications are dismissed only cases of intentional manipulation are investigated in an African swine fever area the Dutch authorities are requesting for this to happen the 27 European states must be flawlessly compliant this is not always the case as demonstrated by a recent case involving beef it happened in 2019 6 years after horse [Music] gate the Scandal was serious and France was at the heart of it this time the fraud concerned a public order for 1,500 tons of minced Stakes intended to distribute to Charities these Charities raised the alarm when they discovered the whitish color of these Stakes originating from Poland why did the French government choose polish [Music] suppliers European buyers have become fixated on polish beef suppliers are undercutting prices partially due to highly competitive labor costs Poland has become one of the world's leading meat producers a business that in 2017 was worth almost €6 billion Eur the Charities had the Polish Stakes delivered to them analyzed the results confirmed all their [Music] [Applause] suspicions [Music] [Applause] beef has been replaced with byproducts the substitution is all the more shocking since the stakes were intended for people in need but how do you find out who is responsible the European food fraud network has no investigative power so it is the Polish government that has to take over the Polish Veterinary authorities are launching a series of controls aimed at the manufacturer the company bski it is one of the new Giants of beef production it is subjected to the same regulatory obligations as in the rest of Europe in conclusion there is nothing to investigate here we tried to question the Polish company's managers but we were rejected several times meanwhile there is another case which two polish journalists have been working on for the past 6 months it will raise suspicions about the country's entire beef industry one of them Patrick sapak managed to get himself hired in a small Countryside slaughter house we got a tip that there's some illegal procedure happening in one of the slaughter houses we knew before that there are similar procedure ongoing in other solder house but this one we knew exactly that this is going on the other house itself is in the middle of nowhere so there is no possibility to take a look without getting anyone's attention [Music] so I changed some of appearance changed some of my behavior and went for a job interview to the soter house it might sound ridiculous but I got the job and then the next day I started to work as a [Music] slaughterman the first trucks of cows sick or dead ones for coming out like few of them have some rottening parts few of them like you know they have some white thing going out from them through their mouth and there was no vet of course nearby he just came up in early in the morning to check out heads of cows not the meat he behaved like the this this Bine meat magically pop out in the middle of a night and he just comes there and I don't see anything broadcasted on television their investigation triggered a political crisis the journalists showed that other slaughter houses in the country have the same practices they bought cows for meat processing at low prices and sold the meat at full price it got a big effect and then our Ministry of Agriculture had to take some actions they ordered uh massive checkups in every single slauter house in Poland which like 400 of them but the one who's being expected knows about it like in a week in advance so there's no surprise effect I talked with several former Ministers of agricultures and depues which told me um that this thing this Scandal like everybody knew about it that is going on but it was convenient to basically leave it on and work it because it's pure profit right meat not fit for consumption entered the food chain through a weak link the slaughter houses then it spread through the entire marketing Network the meat from this slaughter house where I work was founded in like 14 countries France Germany Czech Republic Saudi Aria turkey the fraud caused a diplomatic crisis at the European level inspectors sent by Brussels then audited the entire polish beef industry their report confirmed numerous shortcomings in sanitary procedures and [Music] traceability the state didn't really change the law so it's still happening somewhere over there right how can one effectively fight against food fraud when the state doesn't even take action one country Prides itself on being at the Forefront of the fight against fraud [Music] Italy they are the first country in Europe to have put in place detection measures yet it is overwhelmed by fraud the challenge is in keeping with the success of Italian cuisine and the worldwide appeal of each of its [Music] products ludoviko viaro is one of the few Italian magistrates specialized in criminal cases involving food food fraud affects all Italian [Music] products how can the Italian authorities stop [Music] it a special unit has been created to save the National gastronomic Heritage its efforts are focused on one food product in particular nine out of 10 Italians consume it and the demand is growing rapidly Italian extra virgin olive oil is number one on the World Market this gem brings in 1.2 billion EUR each year for the Italian [Music] State counterfeits borrow the names of real companies to Market their fake product products Italian controllers have the means to demand that online sales platforms immediately take down fraudulent ads to assess the effectiveness of this system we must dive into the industry starting with the olive trees Italy is a land of traditional production and one region is more so than any other Tuscany in the village where Leonardo da Vinci was born Luigi carries on the tradition of Italian extra virgin olive oil he is experiencing a dramatic drop in [Music] profits global warming and the abundance of insects are putting a strain on national production and yet Luigi notes that big Brands Supply the supermarkets of Italy and Europe all year long with extra virgin olive oil sold at knockdown prices in order to supply the World Market these big manufacturers don't Harvest press or produce on site unlike [Music] [Applause] Luigi they gather produce and add fragrance and their oil is then the result of complex blending which includes a large portion of imported oil this is how the fraud [Music] Begins the port of Loro is the main unloading point for goods in Tuscany a special system set up by the Italian fraud control authorities is in place here every day a ship unloads its cargo of extra virgin olive oil manufacturers bring in in the precious liquid from all over the Mediterranean [Music] Bas these Imports will be mixed with the national production and sold as Italian extra virgin olive oil this is legal under one condition that all the criteria for extra virgin olive oil be met Italian inspectors are looking for imported foreign oil of poor quality too acidic or not fruity enough imitation is easy and if it is discovered the oil is simply registered in a lower category stating that an error has crept into the documents random checks at the Port are of very little Effectiveness this is why the fraud control agents have concentrated their efforts on another stage of the production chain a few kilometers away a producer agreed to let us watch how this European unique surveillance system works a computer program allows the controllers to follow in real time all the producers of extra virgin olive oil each delivery must be declared before launching an ination the inspector knows exactly what he needs to find in the tanks the quantity the oil that is produced on site the oil that is imported everything must be recorded by the producer this meticulous control is equivalent to putting the entire production of Italian olive oil under administrative supervision okay while everything seems to be in order with this producer random samples will be taken and sent for analysis this is the only way to ensure the authenticity of the extra virgin olive oil is there a double standard between small manufacturers and large ones it is rumored among producers that the Italian authorities tend to spare the major producers of the market all the while the quality of their oil is regularly called into question by independent bodies in May 2021 the consumer protection magazine salvagente tested 15 bottles of oil from Major Brands they were sent to public Laboratories for analysis the result was that 7 out of 15 bottles were not extra [Music] virgin it almost seems like encouragement for criminals further south in pulia lies the largest area of intensive olive oil production it's here that traffickers have developed one of the most daring cases of food fraud in recent years ludovico vakaro came across them by chance their code name is Operation yellow gold [Music] e sent for analysis by the investigators these bottles turned out to contain rape seed oil at this stage Ludo viaro does not yet realize the size of the [Music] traffic for these are methods comparable to those used against the mafia in this case it was an entire clandestine organization made up of 34 [Music] people [Music] a perfectly structured Network which bypassed the Italian food surveillance system the Transporters imported rape seed oil most often from Turkey from the nearest port anona usually it was out of date the network leader directed the transformation of the rape seed oil into fake olive oil in the clandestine Workshop the resellers then took charge of it and traveled the roads to sell it to Italian Swiss and German restaurants some of them were renowned and even visited by the German Chancellor or the Italian [Music] president for within the network the traffickers are feeling lucky counterfeiting olive oil is easy and makes a lot of money comp [Music] in two years the fraudsters have cashed in7 million e impunity seems to Prevail in food fraud cases the criminal sanctions incurred by traffickers indicted in these cases are not deterring [Music] [Music] enough it's not surprising then that Italian mafias have turned their attention to these new types of trafficking now anti-ia brigades are discovering food counterfeits among other illegal Commodities such as Weapons or drugs in 2017 during the arrest of one of the most powerful street gangs in Calabria Italian police officers uncovered a fake olive oil made from industrial lubricants that was being exported to the United [Music] States the mafia has infiltrated wholesale markets Supermarket chains and large European companies how far does their influence reach the food processing industry and the billions that it generates has an irresistible attraction for traffickers of all kinds we probably only know the tip of the iceberg of this Hidden World it is partially because more and more of our food comes from other continents under the effects of globalization all Food Industries are bringing in ever increasing amounts of food at increasingly competitive [Music] prices one food in particular is subject to international trafficking it is synonymous with health food yet it is one of the most counterfeited the control of fraudsters has increased since fish is no longer caught in coastal areas but in distant Seas tuna in particular has sparked the interest of fraudsters to meet the growing demand for raw tuna consumption a very specific Market held by 200 Seafood professionals has been established in Europe this fish is caught in the Pacific or Indian Ocean then quickly Frozen at - 18° its red meat has high value and is expensive the arrival of raw tuna at low prices raised the alarm in 2015 a dozen manufacturers including French German and Italian realized that their business was at [Music] risk one of them agreed to testify although with his face hidden these Seafood manufacturers secretly conducted their own investigation these are illegal practices from Indonesia Vietnam and China gorging fish with water in this way increases their weight and makes them more expensive a widespread fraud technique however there is something much more serious in the case of tuna they filmed this discovery secretly during a visit to a Spanish competitor that day they noticed the presence of strange Machinery through which the brown tuna loins were passing butchers are allowed to use them they are used to inject nitrates a preservative that gives the hams their brightness and pink color their use however is becoming more and more controversial immediately the manufacturers understood that their competitors had found a trick to turn the tuner [Music] red [Music] [Music] we replicated this chemical transformation in the laboratory the injection of nitrates will allow the oxidized meat to regain its color within a few hours this recolored tuner which can be mistaken for fresh tuner is likely to cause intoxication and allergic [Music] [Music] shock the dissident Industry Group driven by fear of Scandal decided to lay everything out on the [Music] table in 2016 a Spanish police search discovered that the whistleblowers were not wrong here is tuna caught in El Salvador and Panama the brown flesh indicates that they should no longer be eaten raw we will also find the injection machines and high doses of nitrates despite all this evidence the incriminated Spanish manufacturers tried to defend themselves despite this the fraud continued in 2017 there were 454 cases of poisoning in Europe due to tuna spiked with nitrates this is a dangerous health hazard and the European commission had to react europol is the European crime fighting organization they mobilized the police force of 11 different countries this operation shut down one of the largest food trafficking operations in 2018 the result was a record 131 tons of seized tuna this is one of the most important trafficking operations that has been shut down to date 79 criminals were arrested throughout Europe in several illegal workshops notably in Spain but also in France Italy and Malta thanks to the monitoring of the network the investigators learned that the quantities of nitr traes used had the frauders complaining of severe itching the frauders managed to make up to 12 million e in profit per [Music] year it is an incredibly lucrative fraud that has not ended with the impressive takedown of the network despite the increased controls throughout Europe tuna spiked with various chemicals are still seized on a regular basis these four cases are about uh products produced in Vietnam within the food fraud Network European officials are experiencing an increased number of alerts on potential frauds year after year they now affect all food products how do you deal with such a tidal wave frauders enjoy all the facilities offered by a world where the free movement of goods is [Music] key throughout the supply chain the responsibilities that manufacturers have are therefore immense importers Traders processors wholesalers legally these are the guarantors of the authenticity of what we eat to do this they perform thousands of tests each year called self checks although it's impossible to know how many frauds are detected this way the results of these self checks are kept in the [Music] dark only frauds dangerous to health must be disclosed to the authorities the others which are more numerous depend on the Goodwill of the [Music] manufacturers for this impunity extends to the representatives of large distribution chains they to have a legal obligation to put food on the shelves that is what it claims to be however they are almost never prosecuted in cases of food [Music] fraud at the end of our journey into the heart of fraud we can no longer look at our food in the same way how many of these products are counterfeit without anyone noticing ing how many fraudsters are we funding with our globalized food consumption patterns no one is aware of the extent of the fraud and yet a widespread concern is [Music] spreading consumers are increasingly concerned about the effects of food on their health by targeting our food criminals and professional fraudsters are making us feel increasingly worried about what is really on our [Music] [Music] [Music] plates [Music] for

Channel: ENDEVR

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Id: kplz4ilrqc0

Length: 52min 12sec (3132 seconds)

Published: Sun May 12 2024