SAO PAULO: Brazilian health and safety officials raided the England and Italy team hotels for next month’s World Cup and confiscated fish, butter, ham and other food past their sell-by dates.
More than 50 kilograms of food deemed unfit for consumption was taken from the Portobello Hotel where Italy will stay and another 2kg was removed from England’s Hotel Royal Tulip. Both hotels are in Rio de Janeiro.
As part of a wider campaign by the ‘State Secretariat for the Defence and Protection of Consumers’, officials visited 13 restaurants, supermarkets, bakeries, shops and hotels, and notified eight of them for irregularities.
“In total, 218kg of food unfit for consumption was discarded,” the Secretariat said in a statement.
One of the biggest raids came on Monday at Italy’s hotel in Mangaratiba, just outside the city of Rio. Officials there discovered 25kg of seafood and margarine past the sell by date, and another 24kg of meat, sauces, cheese and sugar that had no visible sell-by date.
They also removed 2.6kg of salmon, parma ham and butter after visiting England’s hotel.
Both hotels were also warned for not providing condoms to guests, as is required under Brazilian law.
Agents also visited the Hotel Caesar Park where the Netherlands squad will be based but found no irregularities there.
Thirty-two teams will take part in the World Cup next month, the first to be held in Brazil since 1950. Many of them will bring their own food and their own chefs. (AFP)