A final stop (hopefully) to the wine frauds of the prestigious red wine Amarone, thanks to an online intelligence system developed by the University of Trento, Italy and directed by the Trentino-Alto Adige Regional Command of the Guardia di Finanza. This is the aim of the protocol agreement signed today by the Valpolicella Wine Consortium (The “Wine Board” of Valpolicella) with the Trentino-Alto Adige Regional Command of the Guardia di Finanza, the Autonomous Province of Trento and the University of Trento: a innovative procedure which sees the great reds of Valpolicella for the first time specially monitored on the web.
An experiment which will allow the Valpolicella Consortium to take further action on two different issues: on one hand, sensitising its member companies to collaborate in identifying fraud risk situations, and on the other promoting more testing with new anti-fraud IT systems such as blockchain technology, software and algorithms capable of identifying websites containing alleged falsified products and any illegal use of references to the protected designations of origin.
The protection and control activity of the Valpolicella Consortium is thus intensified, 2 years after the signature of the protocol agreement with the Central Inspectorate for Quality Protection and Fraud Repression of Agri-Food Products of the Ministry of Agricultural Policies (ICQRF), which contributed by signalling 308 suspected wine frauds of Valpolicella wines – especially Amarone – on the web.
Thanks to the action of the Valpolicella Wine Consortium, which will lead the way for a replicable protection format of the protocol for other Italian agri-food products threatened by Italian sounding, other bodies and associations have committed to safeguarding the authenticity of the products from unfair commercial practices.
