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The Czech Agriculture and Food Inspection Authority (CAFIA) regularly checks the actuality of the information provided by public catering establishments – in particular restaurants and fast foods offering meals. During the inspection, the inspectors compare the information given on menus, menu boards or verbal information provided by the staff with the actual composition of the meals in question. The aim of the inspection is to check whether untrue or misleading information is provided to consumers during the offer, namely as regards the composition of the dish, the ingredients used or whether a more expensive ingredient has been replaced by a cheaper one to the consumer’s detriment.

In 2023, CAFIA inspectors carried out this kind of inspection in a total of 194 different public catering establishments. Providing false and misleading information was detected in 49 cases. The inspectors thus found illegal practices in a quarter of the inspected establishments. The inspectors found more offences in some of them, with a total of 60 detections.

The most frequent type of deception found by the inspectors concerned offering food with cheese. A typical example is 'Parmesan' cheese, where the protected designation of origin 'Parmigiano-Reggiano' was abused by the operators in 18 cases by replacing the mentioned ingredient with another cheaper ingredient with similar taste characteristics. In 2 cases, inspectors found misusing the term 'Grana Padano'. In 19 cases, the inspection detected unauthorised use of the 'Hermelin' brand, whereby the ingredient was replaced by other brands of cheese (e.g. camembert) in the dish.

In 4 cases, the inspection confirmed unauthorised use of the term 'ham' when the operator had used another meat product in the dish that failed to correspond to the label.

The above mentioned findings show that the most frequent misleading occurs when offering dishes coming from Italian gastronomy, e.g. pizza, pasta, risotto, etc.

In addition to these cases, the inspection also checked the segment of poured beverages. The inspectors noted the most irregularities in the offer of spirits under the label 'rum'. In 9 cases, the inspection showed that the consumer was in fact served 'tuzemak' or other spirits not corresponding to the category 'rum'.

The inspectors ordered the persons concerned in the use of false and misleading claims to remedy the irregularities. CAFIA will initiate an administrative procedure on imposition of fines with them.

Article by: Pavel Kopřiva – CAFIA Spokesperson, phone: +420 542 426 633 

23^rd February 2024