What's written on the label and what's actually in the package - for some of the cheeses on Macedonian shelves, those are two entirely different things. The Food and Veterinary Agency carried out extraordinary checks and uncovered fraud that directly deceives consumers about what they're eating.

The numbers are concrete: of 91 samples taken in total from domestic producers and imports, 45 were analyzed, and irregularities were found at 10 operators. The most drastic case - a cheese whose label says 20 percent milk fat, while the lab analysis showed it actually contains only 1 percent. For that, the operator was fined 3,500 euros.

Eight other producers and importers received fines of 1,050 euros each for the same reason - a gap between the declared and the actual milk-fat content. Another operator was illegally using palm fats in dairy products; a batch of 500 kilograms was pulled from the shelves and destroyed, with a fine of 1,300 euros.

This is worth pausing on. A product's label isn't a formality - it's a contract with the buyer. When someone pays for cheese with 20 percent milk fat and gets something with one percent, that's not an "irregularity," that's fraud for money. And the question is: how many products like this passed through the checkout before the agency reacted?

The agency announced that the checks continue - meat products are next, with results still awaited. It's good that there's inspection. But a check that comes after the product has already been on the shelf for months always arrives too late for the person who already bought it and ate it. Trust in what we buy - that's what actually crumbles with every false label like this.