Bulgarian authorities have seized 35 tons of food products considered unfit for human consumption during an inspection of a cold storage facility near the Sofia village of Podgumer.
The operation, carried out by the Internal Affairs Directorate, uncovered 19 tons of chicken meat and 16 tons of butter stored alongside other goods prepared for delivery to retailers. Police said the products were stopped before reaching shops and consumers.
The chicken meat had been imported from Brazil. Inspectors found that some boxes originally carried red labels stating that the products were intended only for animal feed. Investigators believe that most of these markings had been removed.
“As you can see, these labels have been removed from all the other boxes. The products in question cannot have documents, and the labels that should have been on them have also been compromised,” said Milen Hristov from the Economic Police Department.
The meat was stored at a temperature of minus 18 degrees Celsius. In a nearby freezer operating at minus 30 degrees Celsius, authorities discovered another 16 tons of butter for which there was no available information about the expiration date.
