Danish salmon and cod importer Prime Ocean in Skagen is in trouble after it was unveiled the company relabeled 20 tonnes of Norwegian salmon from 2017, and later sold it as Danish smoked salmon from 2019 to the supermarket chain Aldi.
According to the Danish newspaper, Ekstra Bladet, the Norwegian salmon from 2017 was purchased as a residual lot in Australia before it was relabeled and sold to Aldi. In addition, Prime Ocean gave the salmon a shelf life of 28 days, even though the company from which they purchased the salmon stated that it was durable for 48 hours after thawing, due to the danger of listeria growth.
It was during a routine check in May that the Danish Food Authority discovered that the salmon was about to be relabeled. A director from Prime Ocean, as well as an employee, assured the supervisor that the salmon would not be resold. Later, the inspectors discovered that Norwegian salmon was sold as Danish salmon at Aldi. The audit, therefore, carried out a raid at Prime Ocean, and also found out that the company cheated with MSC-labelling of Cod.
“These are serious violations of the legislation,” says Michael Rosenmark in the Danish Food Safety Authority to Ekstra Bladet.
The Danish Food Authority has fined Prime Ocean about EUR 27,000 for the offenses, but according to the legislation has not had the opportunity to close the company.
Aldi’s communications manager Kristian Jessen tells the newspaper that they have stopped working with Prime Ocean, and at the same time emphasizes that the company has never been a regular supplier to the supermarket chain.
Co-owner of the Prime Ocean, Niels Nordmann, writes this to the newspaper in an e-mail.
“We have misunderstood the rules. That has now changed. We have had a good dialogue with the Food Supervision Authority about the rules and we follow them now. ”
