Thousands of kilos of French potatoes that were apparently labelled as being part of Bologna's protected denomination of origin have been confiscated in Messina, on the Italian island of Sicily.
According to national police agency the State Forestry Corps, following the discovery of the allegedly counterfeit goods, two people were arrested on suspicion of forging brands and protected geographic indications for agricultural products.
A further two people have reportedly been arrested and thousands of kilos more potatoes seized at a supply company in Brindisi, in the region of Puglia.
The police said that while the potatoes themselves posed no actual danger to the public, they were the subject of a fraud which meant 'an inferior quality, foreign product' ended up on the tables of consumers who thought they were buying a top-quality item guaranteed by one of the EC's prestigious geographical brands.
The Bologna Potato Consortium, which manages and protects the PDO and works with suppliers to market the trademark, was founded more than ten years ago and was granted EU protection for the city's potatoes in June 2004.
The consortium brings together two main producer organisations, which in turn represent around 2,000 potato growers in the region around Bologna.
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