Guariniello: "A specialized national agency is needed to combat food crimes"

"The activity of individual powers of attorney is not sufficient with regard to the activity of food control. Each power of attorney examines a small piece of the problem, but cannot have an overall view. This is why a specialized national agency must be established." The magistrate Raffaele Guariniello spoke to the Festival of Food Journalism with a lesson on the strategies needed to combat the phenomenon of food crimes. "Many bodies of the public administration are called upon to monitor, but often the controls are insufficient. Even the long times of the judiciary mean that a sense of impunity often spreads among companies."

Unlike what happens in other sectors, such as that of safety at work, "jurisprudence is confused in identifying the criminal responsibility of individuals". There is a risk, for example, that the top management of large companies in the sector tend to delegate, to unload the responsibility on the bodies they are subjected to. "The subject is entitled to delegate - underlined the magistrate - but even in the case of delegation he cannot in any case be exempt from responsibility when strategies established by the top are at stake, not attributable to the weakest links".

But all this is not enough, "because the individual passes". It is necessary to call into question the "administrative responsibility of the entities, already provided for by a law of 2001 and then extended to the protection of health, the environment and food products". Thus one could arrive at "interdictive sanctions, possibly already applicable as precautionary measures". Finally it serves a national coordination. "How is it possible - wonders Guariniello - that when the same company carries out the same activity in different establishments," in an area of ​​the country the investigations "conclude with a conviction and in others with the acquittal?specialized agency".

di Lorenzo Montanaro