The Brandenburg fraudulent label

A company is being investigated in Brandenburg that has relabelled meat with an expired best-before date on the market. Some of the confiscated meat was obviously spoiled. On the edge it is amusing that the Union parliamentary group is immediately formulating an attack on the federal government. But read for yourself.

The food scandal surrounding the company Mac Snack Food Import GmbH in Stahnsdorf (Potsdam-Mittelmark) is widening. According to the Brandenburg Ministry of Agriculture, one of the 28 meat samples that were examined in the past few days at the Brandenburg State Laboratory in Frankfurt (Oder) had exceeded the shelf life. "It was inedible," said ministry spokesman Achim Wersin. Two of the five samples of the Argentine beef examined at the Berlin Institute for Food, Drugs and Animal Diseases (ILAT) were said to have been bad. "The meat was so spoiled that you could smell, see and taste it even without a microbiological examination", ILAT department head Doris Kusch is quoted as saying.

The company is accused of having relabeled and delivered food with an expired use-by date. In addition to hotels, retirement homes and a party service, a hospital is also affected. The public prosecutor's office in Potsdam is investigating the managing director and a branch manager on suspicion of violating the Food and Consumer Goods Act. According to the State Criminal Police Office (LKA), a food inspector from the Office for Agriculture and Consumer Protection in the Potsdam-Mittelmark district has also been targeted by the authority. LKA spokesman Toralf Reinhardt cautiously indicated that there was an initial suspicion that "possibly nothing was found intentionally during controls". Another press report says that the inspector, after discovering overstocked food during an unannounced inspection, only came to "check" after registering with the company.

According to the Potsdam public prosecutor's office, 22 customers have complained about the quality of the goods delivered in the past and have since been questioned by the police. Supposedly, some meat buyers were made "palatable" to the dubious quality by a special discount if they complained.

Mac Snack belongs to the B & S Brysalo Group AG with its headquarters in Berlin's Beusselstraße and moved to Stahnsdorf in autumn 2001. According to newspaper reports, the later banned factory sale caused a stir on site. "For the price they sell meat for," a neighboring butcher is quoted as saying, "I can't even buy it."

The case is said to have started with tips from the wife of a dismissed employee. Apparently there are now other witnesses. The company had always rejected the allegations and spoke of a revenge campaign.

Food monitoring in need of improvement - Berlin scandal best example

The consumer protection officer of the CDU/CSU parliamentary group, Ursula Heinen MdB, explains the Berlin food scandal about expired but relabeled meat:

This scandal impressively shows how urgently food monitoring in Germany needs to be improved. Even if the meat is not harmful to health, according to experts, as long as it has been continuously refrigerated, such behavior is unacceptable. These acts of deception and violations of labeling regulations to protect consumers must be severely punished.

What we need is therefore

• better integration of federal and state governments in food monitoring,
• a financing concept of the federal government to help the federal states in carrying out the diverse tasks of food control
• and a standardization of procedures in the countries.

We have made suggestions for this. We call on the federal government to act as soon as possible.

Source: Stahnsdorf [ Thomas Proeller ]