ROME - ITALIAN authorities confiscated 160 metric tonnes (176 tonnes) of spoiled or fake seafood across Italy in a series of raids over the past two weeks, officials said on Tuesday.

Agriculture Minister Luca Zaia said the seizures over the Christmas holidays, when Italians typically eat lots of fish, were the largest-ever involving seafood.

Most of the haul involved frozen seafood that was either expired or was poorly conserved. A fraction involved cheap, foreign fish that was being marketed as more expensive, locally-caught fish, Mr Zaia said at a press conference on board a ship in Venice.

In the operation, dubbed 'Transparent Fish', some 2,000 officials from the Coast Guard and regional ports conducted more than 6,600 searches in 14 ports across Italy from Dec 12-29, a statement said.

Seven people were arrested for scuffling with police during the searches; other importers and distributors were hit with nearly euro700,000 (S$1.4 million) in administrative fines, the statement said.

Many Italians typically eat multi-course, seafood-based meals over Christmas and New Year's, often involving spaghetti with clams, baked sea bass and other delicacies.

Mr Zaia said the raids showed that Italy had zero tolerance for fraud involving its food - especially during the holidays.

'You can eat your New Year's dinner ... knowing that the government intervened and made it safer,' Mr Zaia said. -- AP