As part of the activity carried out to protect the "made in Italy" to ensure the safeguarding of the quality of national products from fraud, the daily synergistic work of the Fiamme Gialle of the Provincial Command of Cagliari and the Central Inspectorate for the protection of Quality and Repression Fraud of agri-food products (ICQRF) of the Ministry of Agricultural, Food and Forestry Policies, has made it possible to identify, in the Sardinian territory, the marketing, by some producers, of pecorino cheese of the "Sardinian flower" type, made in violation of specific rules of the production specification.
The activity, carried out by the Inspectors of the Central Inspectorate for Repressions of Fraud of Sardinia (ICQRF) and by the soldiers of the 2nd Metropolitan Operational Unit of the Guardia di Finanza of Cagliari, under the guidance of the Public Prosecutor of Cagliari, made it possible to register the producers of the aforementioned PDO cheese and to carry out specific analyzes aimed at assessing compliance with the production disciplinary which provides, among other things, as a fundamental and necessary element to be able to refer to the product the name "Fiore Sardo", the use of milk "Raw" produced and processed only in the Sardinia region.
Following targeted analyzes carried out by the specialized personnel of the ICQRF Laboratory in Perugia, important elements emerged that made it possible to clarify the use of heat-treated milk instead of "raw" milk by some producers: this circumstance, constituting a violation of underlying rules the possibility of referring to the specific cheese the denomination of "Fiore Sardo", has been merged into a specific notification of crime forwarded to the Public Prosecutor of Cagliari.
The Judicial Authority, accepting the investigative hypotheses and deemed necessary an intervention to protect consumers (who, unaware, bought and consumed a "generic" product instead of one advertised as a PDO), ordered the preventive seizure of the production of " Fiore Sardo ”by some manufacturers from December 2021 to March 2022.
The aforementioned coercive measure was confirmed by the Cagliari Review Court which, at present, declared the review presented by three suspects inadmissible due to lack of legitimacy and rejected the review of the related three companies under investigation.
The seizure operations made it possible to subject to precautionary restrictions over 67 thousand cheeses present in various storage warehouses located in Sardinia and, in one case, in a warehouse in Tuscany.
The total estimated weight was over 270 tons, in fact of generic pecorino but in any case branded and proposed to the market as "Fiore Sardo" which would have yielded an estimated undue gain of over € 1.600.000, due to the significant price difference. to which the particular denomination of cheese is sold compared to the ordinary one.
Seven producers were reported to the local Prosecutor for this conduct, for having configured the offense punished by art. 517-quater of the Criminal Code "counterfeiting of geographical indications or denominations of origin of agri-food products".
It is specified that the product has not shown any damage to health or dangers related to food consumption.
The activity carried out testifies, once again, to the constant commitment and continuous efforts put in place in order to protect the agri-food sector from counterfeiting phenomena, safeguarding one of the symbols of Italy in the world and protecting honest producers. These intentions are further amplified and strengthened through the precious collaboration between the Central Inspectorate for the protection of quality and fraud prevention of agri-food products (ICQRF) of the Ministry of Agricultural, Food and Forestry Policies and the Guardia di Finanza. The two control bodies have for some time stipulated a specific memorandum of understanding that maximizes their respective expertise by activating and implementing a more effective and efficient collaboration to protect legality in the agri-food sector, having regard to the needs to combat fraud to the detriment of the financial statements of the European Union, the counterfeiting of industrial brands and further violations of intellectual property, as well as other economic and financial offenses, including fiscal ones.
Finally, it is specified that the suspects are to be considered innocent up to a final conviction, in application of the constitutionalized principle of innocence and in implementation of the recent legislation.