Tons of potentially unsafe food seized in Spain

Spanish authorities have confiscated more than 16 tons of food that they said was unfit for human consumption.

The Guardia Civil and officials from the Aragón region made the discovery at a warehouse for the distribution of food products.

One person was arrested and accused of crimes against public health, fraud, and falsifying documents.

In mid-April, authorities in Aragón requested help from the Nature Protection Service (SEPRONA) of the Guardia Civil of Calatayud during an inspection that was being carried out at a warehouse in the area that included storage space and cold rooms.

SEPRONA officers found a range of issues relating to the storage of products and conditions. These included dead rodents in different parts of the warehouse and their droppings, insects, dirt inside the cold rooms, foods with expired shelf lives, labels with modified expiration dates and a lack of product traceability documents.

Products included beverages, canned items, meat products, nuts and various types of sweets. Inspections were carried out over several days due to the large number of items stored in the warehouse.

Investigations are ongoing to determine at which establishments the implicated products could have been sold.

Olive theft
The Guardia Civil has also investigated various thefts of more than 17 tons of olives in the Las Vegas region of Spain.

Five people were investigated and 16 were arrested, including those responsible for two mills that received the olives. The suspects are aged between 20 and 57 years old.

Operation Kalabrea focused on six thefts from farms in the region. The investigation began in January when a complaint was received from a farmer, who had 8,400 kilograms (18,500 pounds) of olives stolen from various farms.

Inquiries found this was related to other incidents with similar characteristics in which the owners of different farms in the Las Vegas region were suffering robberies and thefts of large quantities of olives.

In February, a vehicle was detected in which five people were transporting 140 kilograms (308 pounds) of olives. When stopped they could not prove the origin of the products.

Further investigations revealed two mills in the provinces of Toledo and Guadalajara received the olives. Officials from SEPRONA were part of a team that searched these sites. Numerous documents were seized relating to the sale of olives and tanks containing oil were found.

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