Fake Nescafe production unit shut down in Egypt

A factory that was producing counterfeit copies of food giant Nestlé's Nescafe coffee products has been shuttered in Egypt by law enforcement.

The facility in North Cairo was producing knock-off Nescafe products as well as other brands, and failing to adhere to regulations, operating without a license, and carrying out commercial fraud, according to local media reports.

There is no truth to rumours that the counterfeit packs were being filled with ceramic powder, a rumour that circulated on social media and led to questions being raised in Egypt's parliament, according to a government official cited by EgyptIndependent.com.

It has been reported that a raid at the factory revealed 5m fake packs of branded beverage products, as well as three tonnes of raw materials.

Nestle warned in 2021 that it had encountered counterfeit jars of Nescafe Gold in the supply chain, including in Germany and the Netherlands, and in some markets it has started using security seals to protect  its products.

Coffee has become an increasingly common target for food fraudsters, with low quality ground coffee beans adulterated with filler ingredients such as corn, barley, wheat, soybeans, rice, beans, acai seed, brown sugar or starch syrup. One of the main drivers has been a reduction in coffee bean output thanks to poor harvests in some key producers such as Brazil, Vietnam and Ethiopia.

There have also been examples of completely artificial counterfeit coffees, including an incident in Vietnam in 2015 involving a substitute that smelled and tasted like coffee but was found on analysis to contain toxic heavy metals.