The Food and Economic Safety Authority (ASAE) have seized hundreds of products, including lollipops and beer containing cannabis extracts, during an operation carried out in the Algarve.
The main objective of Operation Gummy was to “verify compliance with requirements regarding composition, labelling, health claims and authorization for the use of new foods, including new psychoactive substances.”
ASAE reveals that more than 550 packages of food products were seized, including cookies, gum, lollipops, teas, chewing gum, soft drinks, oils and supplements, 9 kilos of food products and 120 litres of beer, whose labelling indicated “the presence of extracts from the Cannabis Sativa plant, such as cannabidiol (CBD) and tetrahydrocannabinol (THC)”.
Six criminal proceedings were also instituted for the “marketing of counterfeit foodstuffs and corruption of food substances” and two administrative offence proceedings for “failure to comply with labelling rules, namely the failure to translate mandatory information into Portuguese”.
An individual was made a defendant and subject to the coercive measure of Identity and Residence Term.
"Cannabis sativa extracts with concentrations of cannabidiol (CBD) are considered novel foods and, as such, under EU Regulation, require a safety assessment to assess potential risks to the life or physical integrity of consumers," explains ASAE.
The seizures were carried out with the collaboration of the GNR of Albufeira.
