Egyptian tomato concentrate contaminated by pesticides: maxi seizure in Italy

More than 800 tons of tomato concentrate have been seized in South Italy by Carabinieri (national gendarmerie) of the Agri-Food Protection Command from a company leader in the canning sector. The investigations revealed that a large amount of pesticides was present in the tomatoes from Egypt.  

The level of pesticides detected in the tomato concentrate was high enough to make the investigators believe that the risk of harmfulness to human health was concrete. The goods, worth one million euros, were stored in thousands of metal drums each containing an average of 250 kg of tomatoes that were waiting to be processed and packaged such as double or triple concentrate. The products were mainly intended for the foreign market, Germany and the Maldives in particular.  

Unfortunately, despite the large quantity of goods that have been confiscated, it is only what remains of a much larger batch: it has been ascertained, in fact, that a few hundred tons have already been marketed in the European Union and non-EU countries.  

The two brothers who own the company were reported both for commercial fraud and for trade in harmful food substances.  

"The seizure of tomato concentrate from Egypt confirms the alarm for the importation of low quality foods, with the risk that they will be passed off as made in Italy", writes Coldiretti ((National Confederation of Direct Farmers) in a note. The operation follows in a few weeks the seizure of thousands of tons of foreign tomato concentrate used in the production line as a 100% Tuscan tomato, which involved another well-known company. In the first two months of 2021, imports of tomato products into Italy increased by as much as 23%, especially from China, while the quantities from Egypt nearly doubled (+ 83%) compared to last year.      


Sources:  

https://www.ansa.it/campania/notizie/2021/06/08/sequestrate-821-tonnellate-pomodoro-nocivo-nel-salernitano_9f51deb2-3edf-4f8d-a970-bbe5873abd99.html

https://www.coldiretti.it/salute-e-sicurezza-alimentare/consumi-1-mln-di-chili-di-pomodoro-contaminato-dallegitto