Fraud in the organic sector: more than one in seven professionals caught by Fraud Repression

Conventional mushrooms mixed with organic ones or even fake organic meat in supermarkets: more than one in seven professionals checked in 2024 and 2025 were caught by the Fraud Repression, the latter detailed on Wednesday. These 15.5% of professionals out of more than 4,800 inspected were subject to compliance orders or, in the worst case, fines and reports sent to the public prosecutor's office.

This rate does not, however, reflect the state of the entire market, warned the Directorate General for Competition, Consumption and Fraud Control (DGCCRF), given that these controls are based on prior targeting. The administration cites as an example a mushroom producer who knowingly sold, in addition to his own certified organic production, several tons of conventionally farmed mushrooms purchased from a wholesaler, all under the organic label.

The fake organic present in canteens

The Fraud Repression also noted the case of a supermarket whose butchery section displayed a statement “organic beef, the power to buy French”, even though no tray sold was organic and only half of the meat was of French origin. Many inspections have revealed professionals selling organic products without being certified or declared to the Organic Agency. The DGCCRF was also interested in canteens, which must, since a 2018 law, put at least 50% labeled products on the menu, including 20% ​​organic; in 2024, they were still far from the mark (11.8% organic), according to the Ministry of Agriculture.

By going through two weeks of menus from a municipal canteen, investigators found that a quarter of the dishes presented as organic were not. In other canteens, an employee's report revealed the fraudulent use of the organic label for the bread served and the supplier was fined 60,000 euros.

Faced with professionals in good faith, the DGCCRF indicates that it has demonstrated above all pedagogy, in particular with a small manufacturer of “organic vanilla chestnut jam” who was invited to correct its label after it was noted that only one of its ingredients was organic. Because they are generally sold more expensively, organic products present “a significant risk of fraud”, underlines the Fraud Repression. The market has started to rise again (+3.6% in 2025 according to the Organic Agency) after several lackluster years.