A shocking discovery just outside Tirana has exposed one of the most dangerous food safety scandals Albania has ever seen:
A warehouse producing and distributing fake food under the labels of popular local brands, and nobody stopped it for years.
The police raid led to the arrest of two individuals and an open investigation into two more, including Skifter Tagani, the owner and legal representative of a company that had been operating an underground food forgery factory.
⚠️ Which brands were faked? Almost all the ones you know.
Inside the warehouse, police found massive quantities of counterfeit labels for trusted brands like:
“Deliçka,” “Alpeta,” “Dukati,” “Amaral,” “Albanidis,” “Ajka,” “Erzeni,” and many more.
These fake labels were slapped onto food products of unknown origin, no traceability, and no safety certification, then distributed to stores as if they were 100% safe and certified.
🤢 So what have we really been eating for years? No one knows.
This isn’t an isolated case.
It’s just the tip of the iceberg.
It proves what many Albanians fear: there is no real oversight of what enters our kitchens, our fridges, or our children’s plates.
Where is the National Food Authority (AKU)?
Where are the inspectors?
Where are the safety protocols?
Nowhere.
🕳️ Did no one notice, or did everyone look the other way?
Is it really possible that a company could operate for years, producing fake food with fake labels, and no one noticed?
Or are we looking at a silent pact between criminals and the system, where inspectors keep one eye closed in exchange for favors?
💣 The consequences are devastating, and long-term
- Albanians are directly risking their health
- Consumers are being systematically defrauded
- Honest producers are being destroyed by illegal competition
- Trust in the food industry is collapsing
While Albanian citizens pay more every month for groceries, they still have no guarantee that what they’re eating is even real.
🔍 This needs more than a press release, it needs a full criminal investigation
This isn’t the time for a symbolic fine.
It’s not enough for the police to issue a cold press statement.
We need a full, independent investigation.
We need to know:
- How long this operation lasted
- Who protected it
- Were government officials involved?
🧠 This isn’t about Tagani, this is about a system that has completely collapsed
Skifter Tagani and his company are just the visible surface of a rotting structure.
Below it lies a state that has failed, one that cannot protect its citizens, that doesn’t punish fraud, and that treats food safety like a formality, not a life-or-death issue.
⚠️ If there is no punishment, there will be another warehouse soon
If this case gets swept under the rug like so many others,
If the media moves on,
If institutions respond with silence and delay,
then another forgery factory will pop up. Maybe it already has.
📍 At the end of the day, Albanians will keep eating lies, and the state won’t even blink.
Unless this case results in real convictions,
Unless officials are named and removed,
Unless the entire system is reformed from the root up,
then Skifter Tagani is not the problem. The state is.