A fish distributor in Mallorca serving the island's restaurants has been fined €90,000 for two very serious violations of public health and consumer protection laws.
Twenty tonnes of fish and seafood unfit for human consumption were seized following an inspection in April this year by the Guardia Civil and government health inspectors. In most cases, the products were beyond their use-by dates or had been thawed and refrozen, some with 2019 dates.
Labels showed dates such as batch manufacture in May 2018 and best-before dates, e.g. November 2019. Had these products reached consumers, they would now have been six years out of date. In certain instances, the food had been frozen and thawed several times. By breaking the cold chain, it had become a source of bacteria that could have caused food poisoning.
In the case of frozen oily fish it is recommended to consume it after three months; white fish after six months, and shellfish a maximum of one year after being frozen. This applies to raw foods, but cooked products were also found in the distributor's warehouse; these pose a greater risk as the consumption limit is shorter.
The Guardia Civil have confirmed that none of the packages containing food unfit for consumption were delivered.