Technical salt disguised as food
Technical salt disguised as food

Video: Technical salt disguised as food

Video: Technical salt disguised as food
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Three Polish companies have been selling technical salt under the guise of food salt for 10 years, earning up to 6 million zlotys (about 2 million US dollars) annually by fraudulent means.

The prosecutor's office and the Polish police have confirmed the facts made public in one of the programs of a private TV channel. This was announced at a press conference by a police spokesman in Poznan Andrzej Borowiak.

“Two companies in Kuyavia-Pomerania and one company in Wielkopolskie Voivodeships bought large quantities of technical salt and sold it to the population at a higher price under the guise of food,” Boroviak said.

Each month these firms bought thousands of tons of salt from a chemical plant producing nitrogen fertilizers and sold the same amount. True, the technical product was preliminarily dried and repackaged.

In the sales agreements (and they have been concluded since 2002), the chemical plant emphasized that the salt being sold is not edible salt. They bought technical salt at PLN 30 per ton, and sold it as food salt at PLN 300, making an annual profit of up to PLN 6 million (up to USD 2 million).

Technical salt does not differ from food salt either in appearance or taste, but it contains a hundred times more sulfates than table salt. It is sprinkled with it on roads in winter, used in the production of paints, in the leather industry. According to experts, prolonged use of salt with a high content of sulfites can lead to cancer.

According to the preliminary data of the investigation, industrial salt was supplied to wholesale buyers, manufacturers of fish products, to bakeries. This means - on the table of Poles throughout the country. Magdalena Mazur-Prus, a spokeswoman for the Poznan District Prosecutor's Office, confirmed the arrest of five entrepreneurs and named the articles of the law on food safety, according to which they were charged.

“We are talking about placing on the market food products that are harmful to human health or life,” she said. At the same time, the prosecutor did not name the companies that bought the technical salt, because there is no evidence that they knew about the deception, but stressed: "In this case, there is no need to confirm the results of the consumption of dangerous products, but for such a crime, up to 5 years of imprisonment could be threatened."

In the course of the investigation, the list of the crimes imputed to the detainees may be expanded, and the punishment may increase up to 8 years in prison. Prime Minister Donald Tusk also drew attention to the "salty scandal". He asked the Minister of Agriculture to prepare comprehensive information and called on the relevant services to urgently check how many harmful substances could get into various food products.

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