A Gozitan man, who was found guilty of labelling honey imported from Sicily as "Malta Honey", had his punishment slightly reduced on appeal.

Simon Kris Enriquez from the San Lawrenz-based company Gozo Specialities, had originally been given a six-month jail term suspended for a year for attaching a false commercial description to produce in January 2011.

He had also been found guilty of committing various crimes in breach of the Food Safety Act that included selling a food product that was not up to standard.

He appealed the judgment on various grounds. Chief Justice Silvio Camilleri, presiding over the Court of Appeal, heard how in 2011 the Department of Agriculture received complaints regarding honey which had been falsely labeled as originating from Malta.

Inspectors went to Mr Enriquez’s house in San Lawrenz where, in the basement, they found that food items were being packaged.

The inspectors seized a bucket of imported honey as well as two honey-filled jars bearing the company’s labels. These were analyzed by an expert who concluded that the bucket and the jars contained the same substance that was not Malta honey.

In his appeal Mr Enriquez argued that the samples had not been taken using the correct procedures defined by law and, therefore, there was no guarantee that the samples were not contaminated.

The court upheld this argument and, as a result, the outcome of the expert’s analysis could not be considered as valid evidence leading to Mr Enriquez being cleared of the crimes against the Food Safety Act.

However, the judge said, it still remained proven that the honey being labeled as Maltese originated from imported buckets. He reduced the six-month suspended jail term to four months that was also suspended for year.