Organised crime groups are funnelling relabelled food back onto shelves
I’ve been wondering … what exactly happened to the 160,000 pounds (72,600 kg) of frozen shrimp that were recalled in the US in mid-2025 in relation to the radioactivity scare? Yes, it was recalled, but what happened to it after that?
What did the recalling companies and retailers actually do with each of the hundreds of thousands of 1.25 lb (570 g) bags of product? Did they empty the contents of every one and shred each package so it couldn’t be reused? Did they arrange for secure disposal with a trusted waste company and require a certificate of destruction? Or did they just dump them in a skip bin and let a contractor take them all away?
And why does this matter anyway?
It matters because the results of Operation Opson XIV have just landed. And they show that waste diversion crimes are at “unprecedented levels”.
Reminder: Operation Opson is an annual law enforcement initiative coordinated by INTERPOL and Europol with the aim of detecting and removing counterfeit, substandard, and fraudulent food and beverages from the market, and dismantling organised crime groups linked to such activities.
What are waste diversion crimes?
Waste diversion crimes in food involve illegally redirecting food, drink, or feed that is marked for disposal—such as expired, rejected, or unsafe goods—back into the human food supply chain through acts like relabelling or repackaging.
What do waste diversion crimes look like?
Here’s a hypothetical…
What if a seafood distributor involved in the recent US recalls decided the frozen shrimp was too valuable to throw away? What if senior management decided to make a few extra dollars by relabelling the cartons of product that had been returned to them rather than destroying them as required?
Could the distributor simply rebrand them or oversticker the cartons, add new expiry dates and keep them in the freezer until everyone has forgotten about the recalls, then sell them months or years later?
The short answer is yes.
It’s illegal and immoral, of course, but, with the shrimp worth $4 to $10 per pound, even a small quantity handled in this way can generate meaningful profits out of thin air – especially if the distributor received credits or refunds for the recalled stock.
Frozen seafood lasts many years – a man in Singapore was sentenced in 2023 for crimes related to storing frozen seafood that was almost 10 years past its expiry date – so there is plenty of scope for crime here.
In a different scenario, let’s imagine the seafood distributor does the right thing and sends the recalled shrimp for disposal.
In this scenario, what if the waste disposal company somehow had links to organisations that could relabel or repackage the shrimp and sell it back into legitimate supply chains later?
What if the waste disposal company didn’t just have links to criminals but was actually owned by an organised crime group that also owned repackaging facilities, warehouses and legitimate food distribution companies – a vertically integrated (mostly) legitimate supply chain? In this case, diverting the recalled shrimp back to retailers and restaurants would be easy.
But surely that’s too far-fetched, I hear you say. Sorry, I’m afraid it isn’t.
And anyway, Operation Opson is mostly in Europe. Surely this sort of thing isn’t happening in places like the USA? Sorry, I’m afraid it is.
The following story is not a hypothetical, but a real incident that happened in the United States.
The roadside spilling of a truckload of Skittles confectionery on its way to a cattle ranch, where it was destined for animal feed, made news headlines in 2017. When people protested that cows should not be fed Skittles, the brand owner, Mars, told reporters that the confectionery had been sent for destruction, saying they had no idea how the candies ended up on their way to a farm1.
Waste disposal crimes today
Things have changed since 2017. The price of food has increased dramatically, food security has fallen significantly, even in wealthy countries. There is also a growing body of evidence that documents the involvement of organised crime groups in food, in addition to typical crime sectors such as drugs and guns.
Today’s global landscape has made waste diversion crimes more attractive, not less.
In 2023, European law enforcement agencies dismantled two large crime groups that were reselling expired food after re-printing expiry dates or applying new labels, with 27 people arrested for their roles in a million-euro operation based in Lithuania, and selling food across multiple countries. They also arrested 3 people in Italy. In total, the agencies confiscated more than 1.5 million food and beverage items in the operations. The Lithuanian operation had been active since 2021.
At the time, Europol told reporters, “The phenomenon [of waste diversion crime] is new in its scale and diffused across several EU member states,”
Europol assured the industry that the criminals were working in food disposal, not food production, saying “There is no involvement of food producers, as intermediate suppliers or other entities working in food disposal are used as facilitators in this particular criminal activity.”
“Entities working in food disposal are used as facilitators in this particular criminal activity.” Europol (2023), via Securing Industry
In 2025, the situation seems worse. The most recent Operation Opson, Opson XIV, has just concluded, with 13 organised crime groups disrupted, 101 arrest warrants issued and €95 million worth of food and beverages seized.
One of the major trends for Opson XIV, said Europol, was finding waste disposal companies infiltrated by organised crime groups, which were using the waste companies to gain access to food destined for destruction.
This is not a new phenomenon, but this year, says Europol, the scale is “unprecedented”.
Examples everywhere?
Have you ever seen food that’s been through the waste diversion chain? You probably have, without even knowing it.
I can think of three incidents that could be linked to organised crime in waste providers.
1. Dodgy Diet Coke
‘Not right’-tasting Diet Coke discovered in London in 2025 could be expired product fraudulently reintroduced to the market – artificial sweeteners in diet soft drinks lose their sweetness, rendering old drinks tasting like soda water. Read more on the Fake Coke scandal.
2. Jars of herbs containing glass
In 2023, I reported on a waste disposal company in the Netherlands that was selling food products it had promised to destroy. The crimes were uncovered after a consumer was injured by glass in a jar of herbs from a batch sent for destruction.
The waste company was providing declarations of destruction which were false. A key person at the waste company had previously been convicted of environmental crimes.
3. Spaza shop mystery deaths
In January, I wrote about the thousands of unexplained deaths in South Africa attributed to food purchased from spaza shops (small, independent and lightly regulated retail outlets).
A key complaint about the food from these shops is that it is often expired. Much of it appears to have been illegally imported by foreign nationals operating the stores without proper immigration status.
Video footage of a raid on one shop showed foods such as savoury crackers in transparent inner packs without their outer packaging or labels. Because they are missing traceability elements such as outers and labels, these foods could be from non-legitimate supply chains.
Officially, it’s said that Spaza shop owners use collective purchasing practices to keep prices low; however, it’s possible that groups of spaza shop owners source their products from overseas suppliers with links to waste disposal companies.
Takeaways for food professionals
Enforcement agencies are discovering the presence of organised crime groups in food waste disposal operations at unprecedented levels. Food that is intended for destruction and disposal is being diverted back into the human food supply chain after expiry dates or entire labels are altered or replaced.
Purchasers of packaged foods, such as grocery stores, independent retailers and food service outlets like takeaways, restaurants and cafes should obtain their supplies from legitimate, authorised stockists and wholesalers.
Manufacturers should be vigilant when disposing of packaged or branded materials.
Supplier approval processes should include the vetting of waste disposal contractors. Background checks are recommended – for example, have key personnel got a history of criminal convictions (as was the case in the Netherlands example)?
Certificates of disposal/destruction should be verified where possible.
As a former-soft-drink-company-employee told me in response to my Diet Coke story, “The correct disposal of branded waste and reject materials is a key factor for limiting the opportunity for these crimes.”
When purchasing food as a business or consumer, be on the lookout for:
- Food that seems too old, despite being within date
- Outer cartons and individual packs that are more scuffed, damaged or worn than expected
- New suppliers that appear unexpectedly and offer products from multiple disparate brands, sometimes at lower-than-usual prices
- Corner shops/spaza shops/tuck shops selling food in inner packs marked ‘not for retail sale’, or without exterior packages that would carry the batch codes or date markings
- Packages with foreign language labels and no local information.
If in doubt about any such food, keep a sample and contact enforcement agencies and the brand owner to describe your concerns. Big food companies will investigate and take action against waste disposal crimes affecting their brands.
… and be on the lookout for suspicious frozen shrimp in the US for the next year or two…
In short: The involvement of organised crime groups in waste disposal operations was found at unprecedented levels in the latest Europol anti-food crime operation, Operation Ospon XIV 🍏 Food intended for destruction is being diverted back into the human food supply chain, often with altered expiry dates or new labels 🍏 Purchasers are warned to be aware and to report suspect products to the brand owner and enforcement agencies for investigation 🍏
Main source:
Europol (2025) Counterfeit and substandard food worth EUR 95 million seized in global operation (Operation Opson XIV). Available online: https://www.europol.europa.eu/media-press/newsroom/news/counterfeit-and-substandard-food-worth-eur-95-million-seized-in-global-operation
This article was originally published at The Rotten Apple – a weekly newsletter for food professionals