In view of Easter, the Carabinieri Health Protection Command, in over 840 inspections of production laboratories and sales outlets for chocolate eggs and doves, ascertained irregularities in 324 companies, equal to 38%, contested 574 criminal and administrative violations for a total of 425 thousand euros, and 2 tons of food seized, with an estimated value of over 267 thousand euros. Six shop owners were referred to the judicial authorities. There are 15 measures for the closure or suspension of activities estimated to have an economic value exceeding 5 million euros.
The checks, carried out in agreement with the Ministry of Health, also made it possible to identify industrially produced doves and chocolate eggs which, once discarded and repackaged, were sold as artisanal products at a higher price. Six shop owners were referred to the judicial authority on suspicion of attempted commercial fraud, with the simultaneous seizure of over 300 doves and eggs falsely declared to be of "own production". While the 15 measures closing or suspending activities are due to "serious hygienic and structural situations". In the laboratory of a pastry shop in the province of Bergamo, 70 kg of chocolate and 90 kg of confectionery products which had expired a few years ago and with non-compliant indications regarding the ingredients used were found. Administrative violations worth 3,500 euros contested. In two pastry workshops in the province of Rome, the owners of both businesses were arrested for having marketed industrially produced doves and Easter eggs declared as artisanal gastronomic products. Deficient hygienic and structural conditions were found, 33 packages of doves and 15 Easter chocolate eggs were seized and high fines for a total amount of 4,000 euros. In two pastry laboratories and a food industry in the province of Catania, 1,415 kg of preparations and bases for confectionery products were seized, partly expired, without labeling and traceability, and partly stored in a room/warehouse with serious hygienic-sanitary deficiencies due to the presence of rodent droppings.
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