The country of origin of fruits, vegetables and prepackaged meats is too often indicated by Belgian supermarkets, it comes from a survey conducted by the economic inspection of the SPF Economy. Among the 469 companies controlled between March and December 2024, half broke the regulations.
The survey specifically targeted the fruits and vegetables sold in bulk or prepackaged, as well as fresh, refrigerated or frozen meats from porcine, sheep, caprine, bovine and poultry. In total, 596 offenses were noted, an average of 2.5 offenses per company.
The SPF Economy issued 111 warnings and drawn up 150 minutes with an administrative transaction proposal or an administrative sanction. Some companies have received several warnings for violating various laws.
The majority of offenses concerned the indication of the origin of fruits and vegetables (42.45 %, or 253 cases). In a third of the cases, the origin was not at all indicated. In addition, when this mention was present, it was often unreadable, ambiguous or misplaced, especially for products sold in bulk.
For prepackaged meats, labels were often not in compliance with European legislation. Of the 98 controlled packaging, 20.9 % had irregularities. Among the most frequent problems were the absence of a country of slaughter or breeding, the use of misleading mentions, such as Belgian flags affixed to imported meats, or the use of incomprehensible or ambiguous technical abbreviations on the labels.
“These results show that significant efforts remain to be made to guarantee transparency, fight against misleading practices and ensure fair competition for Belgian producers,” said the spokesperson for the SPF Economy, Etienne Mignolet.
