In a statement, ASAE reports that the operation was carried out by the Southern Regional Unit – Évora Operational Unit in recent weeks, with the action focused on crime prevention, aiming to identify fraudulent practices in the honey value chain, ensuring the conformity of products with current legal requirements and the protection of consumers.

“The operation took place in the municipalities of Évora and Aljustrel following the detection of the sale of packaged honey with a falsified veterinary control number (NCV). Based on the investigations carried out using document traceability, ASAE identified the economic operator responsible for packaging and placing the product on the market,” the document reads.

Following this inspection, ASAE initiated criminal proceedings for the alleged crimes of document forgery and fraud concerning goods.

According to ASAE, an administrative offense was also identified for misleading consumers regarding the origin of the product, since the labelling indicated that it was honey produced by the operator itself, when, in reality, all the product found on the premises was acquired from third parties.

“The operation culminated in the seizure of more than five tons of packaged and bulk honey, encompassing monofloral and polyfloral varieties,” the statement says.

During this operation, ASAE also verified that the economic operator in question has facilities registered as a Primary Production Unit (UPP), being authorized only to extract and package honey from its own farm.

According to ASAE, it was found that all the honey present in the facilities originated from other producers, without any quantity of its own production, and the seized packaging bore labelling with a false veterinary control number (NCV), corresponding to the UPP registration, and improperly indicated that the honey was produced by the operator itself.

"This economic operator is a repeat offender in adopting fraudulent practices, packaging honey acquired from third parties as if it were its own production and by the improper use of veterinary control numbers (NCV) belonging to other operators," they added.