As you can learn from the news below the Spanish police is warning about the amount of fake Pata Negra sold both online and in restaurants. Just because you see the ham has a black foot (hoof) does NOT mean its a 100% Bellota Jamon Iberico AKA Pata Negra! Less than 1% of black hoof hams are actually Pata Negra.
If you can avoid it, never buy vacuum-packed Pata Negra as its losing much of its fine tasting notes and umami flavors. Plus you will not be able to see the certification label on the leg.
Pata Negra should be served freshly carved with all its acorn flavors and fat intact. The fat counts for over 50% of the tasting experience and is the whole reason why Pata Negra cost so much and why there are so many fake Pata Negra in circulation (can easily be compared to fake Cohiba cigars, where there is money to be made there are criminals damaging the market and taking advantage of you).
Watch out if the Green, Red or Black certification label has been removed from the Iberian ham. It takes a lot of experience to detect the difference. That's why European Ham Academy offer both Iberian Ham Masterclasses and Pata Negra Sommelier certification so you can detect and avoid fraud!
Fake pata negra and Iberian hams, a fraud on a national scale
The Civil Guard has dismantled in Alcalá de Guadaíra a millionaire network that marketed fake Iberian shoulders for months. At the head of it, a businessman known as 'Bertín Osborne' for his resemblance to the public figure. The plot had ramifications in Cáceres, Valencia, Salamanca and Madrid.
The business consisted of turning low-quality pieces into fake pata negra hams using blowtorches, seed oil and natural charcoal, according to El Confidencial. The Civil Guard found 50 tons of this ham in two clandestine warehouses, many of them in poor condition.
The next step: who has acquired the hams
As expected, the reactions have been immediate. Facua Andalucía has raised requests to the Ministry of Health and Consumer Affairs and the Ministry of Agriculture, Fisheries, Water and Rural Development to demand that, in coordination with the Nature Protection Service (Seprona), they provide "useful" information to consumers related to the network that marketed "fake pata negra hams and Iberian products" stored in the province of Seville without controls and health records.
In a statement, the association has reported that it has urged the regional authorities to, regardless of the legal proceedings that are currently open, provide information that allows consumers to identify if they have purchased any of the "supposedly Iberian" products intercepted by the Civil Guard in a warehouse.
Thus, Facua Andalucía has requested details about the brand or brands involved with this plot, suppliers, batch numbers if any, establishments where they were for sale, as well as any other service information that allows citizens to know if they have acquired, and should avoid consuming, any of these fake Iberian shoulders, hams and cured meats that lacked the mandatory health controls and records.
A matter of public health
In addition, according to Facua, the network "has put public health at risk". The association recalled that Seprona, in the inspection, uncovered the "deplorable" conditions of the food seized in this warehouse in the province of Seville with "worms" and "totally covered in mold".
Added to this is the fact that the agents verified the lack of entry and exit registration of the products, as well as control in traceability or the modifications they made to the labels of the 2019 batches, which they had set 2030 as the best-before date to sell them on the market.
Likewise, the organization has reported that the network followed a scheme according to which they carried out fraud with food products by opening a warehouse and starting to work in it until a health inspection took place, they requested a few days of margin to collect the documentation, and when the inspectors returned they had already left for another place, where they reproduced the same procedure over and over again.
The businessman who has carried out these practices faces possible crimes against industrial property, fraud, against public health and document forgery.
The network has ramifications in the provinces of Cáceres, Valencia, Salamanca and Madrid, according to Facua, with companies that would be victims of fraud or that are being investigated as accomplices.
Source: https://www.foodretail.es/especiales/sector-primario/falsos-jamones-ibericos-fraude-nacional-bertin-osborne_0_1788121181.html
READ MORE: https://www.worldsbestham.com/2025/01/labeling-campaign-general-directorate.html
