Abstract

Food frauds regularly gain media and institutional attention worldwide due to associated health risks and the impact they have on trust in the food industry. In Italy, media, NGOs, and farmers’ associations tend to consider food fraud and, more broadly, food crimes as an issue of ‘agromafie’, suggesting the infiltration of the agri-food sector by mafia-type criminal associations. This article deconstructs this narrative by drawing on the findings of a case law analysis of decisions of the Italian Supreme Court related to food fraud cases for the period 2011-2022. The article describes how food fraud is prosecuted and sentenced as well as providing an overview of the food fraud activities, offences, criminal actors and their modus operandi contained in these court cases. It shows that the main perpetrators of food fraud are legitimate food firms, often judicially framed as organised crime conspirators. Only few cases relate to the involvement of mafia groups. The article ends with a discussion of the benefits and pitfalls of framing food fraud either as a problem of ‘agromafie’ or as a form of corporate food crime