The First Section of the Provincial Court of Palma recently sentenced one year and eleven months in prison the owner of the Cárnicas Vicente company as the author of the crime against public health of which he was accused. A fact that has surprised numerous users on social networks.
In depth
The man, who He sold expired meat for years from the business of which he was managerbased in Marratxí (Mallorca), has also been convicted to the payment of 120,000 euros to the Ministry of Healthfor the expenses derived from the destruction of merchandise in poor condition, and 80,000 euros to a company that did not pay the invoices it was owed.
Furthermore, according to the ruling, to which he has had access ‘Europa Press‘, the person in charge of Cárnicas Vicente has been disqualified from exercising any profession related to the sale of food for a period of four years. The penalty is slightly less than initially solicitous the Prosecutor’s Office, which was two years in prison.
The Palma Court has also sentenced the company Productos Cárnicos Mallorca, for the same crime, to pay a fine of 18 months, at a rate of 18 euros per day. However, the legal representative of the company, who was also accused, has been acquitted considering that he had no knowledge of the malpractice that was being committed.
More details
In the ruling, the members of the court have considered it proven that between 2013 and 2018 the now condemned, being aware of the risk that this posed for the health of consumers and assuming that riskcommitted several irregularities in the treatment of the meat it sold.
Among other things, he thawed it in buckets of hot water, replaced the labels of expired products with others with a later best-before date.purchased merchandise between one and three days before it expired and kept another that had passed its expiration date for years or was in a state of putrefaction, among other things.
The company, according to the ruling, also did not comply with basic hygiene rules and orders were prepared in an area that did not have cold equipment to guarantee the temperatures suitable for the preservation of meat. It also carried out activities for which was not authorizedsuch as freezing products such as dairy and fish, repackaging cooked meat or slicing sausages and cheeses.
After the Department of Health carried out several inspections in 2018 and draft seven minutes, the suspension of the activity of Cárnicas Vicente and the immobilization and subsequent destruction of all genres that had modified labels.
To take into account
During the trial, the administrator of the company, founded in 2011, denied having sold adulterated or expired food and defended the freezing practices it carried out. “Right now you can go to the supermarket and buy meat that expires today, freeze it and extend its shelf life“he brandished.
The researchers who carried out what is known as ‘Biltong operation‘, in which tons of spoiled meat and it They arrested three people. According to one of the agents, piles of moldy frozen meat pallets were found whose smell was “very strong“.
For her part, one of the head of the Food Safety service of the Department detailed some of the irregularities that were detected in the inspections and that they took them to determine that marketing of meat posed a danger to public health.
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