EGYPT – A company producing counterfeit copies of Nescafe coffee products under the name of food and beverage giant Nestlé has been shut down by law enforcement authorities.
The facility was based in North Cairo and was producing fake nescafe coffee along with other brands while failing to adhere to the appropriate regulations and operating without a license, according to local media reports.
Along with commercial fraud, rumours have it that the fake coffee packs were filled with ceramic powder which led to the matter being discussed in the national parliament according to a government official.
The rumours were however later debunked by the head of the internal trade sector at the Ministry of Supply, Abdel Moneim Khalil who said that the factory was seized due to counterfeiting an international brand.
From a raid in the factory, 5 million fake packs branded Nescafe were found together with three tonnes of raw materials.
Coffee has been a common target for food and beverage fraudsters where low-quality coffee beans are ground and adulterated with filler ingredients like corn, wheat, barley, soybeans, and rice among others.
The increase in this fraud has been attributed to a decline in coffee bean output due to poor harvests in key producer countries like Brazil, Vietnam, and Ethiopia.
In 2021, Nestle released a warning that counterfeit jars of Nescafe gold were circulating in the supply chain and that it had started to use security seals to protect its products.
According to Nestlé Deutschland, the forged product was packaged in a glass jar that looked like an old version of Nescafé Gold which was feared to contain broken glass and plastic.
Nestlé confirmed that the counterfeit product was not from the company and that they had not used this shape of glass for Nescafé Gold for years and it is not commercially available.
The company released a statement saying, “We are shocked by this criminal activity and deeply condemn the fact that our brand has been illegally counterfeited and marketed. The quality and safety of our products is our top priority.”
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