An important operation to protect the ‘made in Italy’, of the biological chain and consumers has unmasked a vast fraud on honey. The carabinieri of the nuclei for the agri -food protection of Verona and Florence seized 2.8 tons of conventional honey from Romania, but sold, also online, as a precious organic product.
At the end of a meticulous investigative activity, the Public Prosecutor of the Republic of Verona received the complaint for the legal representative of the Italian company Mieleallierossrosso.it and for a employee of a Romanian company. The accusations are formulated in competition: “fraud in the exercise of trade” and “introduction in the state and trade of products with false signs”. The checks revealed that, between 2024 and 2025, the company had already sold over 750 kilograms of this false biological honey to unaware consumers throughout Italy.
The fraud chain
On its website, the dealer based in Verona presented himself as a company specialized in “100% pure and natural honey”, boasting “guaranteed traceability and controlled quality”. The reality discovered by the carabinieri, however, was very different. According to the reconstruction of the investigators, the fraud mechanism was well tested. The honey, conventional production, was purchased in Romania, where the product was materially labeled as “organic”, also indicating the name of an authorized certification body in some cases to make it more credible. Once transported to Italy, the accompanying documentation, containing false indications, was not sent to the competent veterinary offices, thus evading the mandatory community checks. Thanks to a “painstaking verification of the documentation”, as defined by the police, it was ascertained that the 2.8 tons of honey found in stock were ready to be placed on the market with the false “bio” label. The product was entirely seized.
The risk to consumers and consequences
The fraud represents a serious violation of consumer rights. Those who buy a organic product pay a higher price in exchange for the guarantee of a production method that excludes pesticides and chemicals of synthesis, in compliance with the environment and biodiversity. Selling a conventional product as organic means betraying this trust, deceiving the consumer on the quality and origin of what he brings to the table.
The consequences for the managers were not only of a criminal nature. In addition to the complaint, the Romanian operator, who belongs to the same entrepreneur himself, was excluded from the certification system for organic agriculture at national level. The facts were also reported to the authorities of Romania for the competence measures. The operation once again underlines the importance of rigorous controls along the entire supply chain to protect both consumers and honest producers who invest in real biological.
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