821 tons of harmful tomatoes seized in the Salerno area due to levels of pesticide found harmful to humans: two brothers reported
The Public Prosecutor's Office of Nocera Inferiore (Salerno) and the Carabinieri for the Protection of Agri-food have urgently seized 821 tons of semi-processed tomatoes, worth approximately one million euros, believed to be contaminated by pesticides.
The levels of chemical compounds detected in the tomatoes were such that investigators believed there was a concrete risk of harm to human health. The goods were stored in thousands of metal drums, each containing an average of 250 kg of product, waiting to be processed and packaged, usually in jars and tubes of various sizes, for subsequent sale on the market – mainly abroad – as double or triple tomato concentrate. Although large, the quantity of semi-processed tomatoes seized represents only what remains of an even more important batch: it has been ascertained, in fact, that several hundred tons have already been marketed in EU and non-EU countries.
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The brothers AP and AD, owners of the company in Agro Sarnese Nocerino, a leader in the canning sector, where the tomato was seized, were reported both for commercial fraud (the type of crime applied in fact tends to protect the interest concerning the economic order in relation to the loyalty and morality of trade, thus ensuring good faith in commercial exchanges), and for trade in harmful food substances.
