During the harvest, the Carabinieri Command for the Protection of Health conducted 960 inspections in the production and selling of wines, detecting 239 non-compliance incidents (equivalent to 24%). 218 wine supply chain operators reported to the health and administrative authorities, and 344 administrative offenses totaling 290 thousand euros were contested. The interventions enabled the identification of 17 enterprises that carried out their activities in production locations with major hygienic-structural and authorization flaws, resulting in the suspension of operations. Simultaneously, wines with no traceability and not documented in the cellar's stock registers were discovered, resulting in the seizure of almost 300,000 liters of product in fermentation or already changed into wine. The total commercial value of the closed facilities and seized products is approximately 11 million euros. The anomalies also involved the possession of forbidden substances at oenological facilities, where three tons of sugar were seized for fraudulent use to enhance the alcohol level of wine, a practice that is still present in some wine supply chain companies.
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