Most people don’t understand what food fraud is and how it is achieved by hidden and deceptive processes in the food supply chain.
Food fraud is committed through mislabeled food, substitution of food products, food dilution and sales of products of poorer quality and/or expired items. Food crimes are committed by suppliers to lower their costs and increase profits. This is done especially to avoid losses from discarding contaminated food. Serious health and safety risks include allergic reactions, exposure to toxins and even death.
Food fraud impacts about 1% of the global food industry at an estimated cost of $10 to $15 billion every year. The food industry must prioritize the curbing of emerging fraud and support the development of global food fraud public policies. Consumers are the ones whose trust in the food industry will spiral downward if more stringent and consistent policies are not adopted around the globe. In most cases, consumers purchase food products with little to no opportunity to examine them prior to purchase.
Food fraud threatens food authenticity, and the misrepresentation of food for financial gain is unethical. One of the leading examples of food fraud committed and reported within the last ten years involved lies about an animal’s origin. In 2013, in the UK and across Europe, horse meat was blended into beef and led to a contamination scandal that caused the withdrawal of millions of products.
Economically motivated adulteration (EMA) is the technical term that describes fraudulent intent and occurs with omissions, substitutions or additions of ingredients to alter food intentionally for the purpose of economic gain. Schemes that dilute cooking oils and syrups are used by companies that advertise these products as pure and offer them at a higher price. In reality, these products were diluted with less expensive ingredients. The industry group Grocery Manufacturers of American estimates that up to 10% of food products purchased in the United States may contain adulterated or fraudulent ingredients.
Globalization has worsened food fraud. This is because extensive supply networks make it difficult to detect the source of fraud and counterfeit products. The Food Safety Modernization Act helps combat these issues through provisions for safety standards and preventative controls that trace food products and their ingredients through all steps of the supply chain. Key goals of this act including improving response times to food contamination outbreaks and adopting more stringent record-keeping requirements for those involved in protecting the public’s health.
Food Fraud Advisors advocate for the development and implementation of food fraud prevention systems. These advisors predict that food fraud will increase in organic foods, waste disposal and document fraud. Standards must be met for products to be labeled as organic with a USDA organic seal. Fraudulent activity occurs when nonorganic items are mislabeled as organic.
Waste disposal fraud occurs when waste companies do not destroy and dispose of goods that fail quality or safety standards, instead selling the substandard food. Document fraud impacts food safety primarily through falsified organic certificates, laboratory reports, and disposal reports.
Food fraud occurs more often with more expensive foods that have a higher profit margin, and seafood is one of the worst offenders.
Varieties of fish that look similar are easily substitutable for other lower quality fish filets. The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) Fisheries responds to deceptions such as bait and switch seafood substitutions, short-weighing which adds weight and costs to a product, mislabeling and the illegal concealment of fish.
To combat food fraud, NOAA Law Enforcement officials inspect fish processing plants, review internet sales of wildlife products and conduct criminal and civil investigations. Seafood fraud reveals how apparent it is that the tracking of food products throughout the supply chain is challenging, labor intensive and requires restraint through laws and regulations.
Businesses in the food industry supply chain must abide by public policies and regulatory measures enforced by the government and other regulatory agencies. The food safety management and traceability systems that companies use to identify problems in the food distribution supply chain are being supplemented with advanced analytical and technological methods that utilize chemical analysis, DNA testing, spectroscopy and other methods to detect adulteration.
Preventing and detecting food fraud combines technology and the commitment of people who provide public awareness to food fraud trends. Members within the food industry need to collaborate with one another, learn from prior fraudulent incidents and consider emerging threats in the interest of retaining consumer trust in the food industry.
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