IUFoST reports on food fraud

The International Union of Food Science and Technology (IUFoST) has released a Scientific Information Bulletin (SIB) addressing the evolving focus on food fraud. The SIB covers an introduction to the issue, a review of incidents, the fundamentals of prevention and insights into the optimal role of food science and technology. The bulletin also presents the latest authoritative science on emerging and headline food science issues.

Food fraud is illegal deception for economic gain using food. The broad types of incidents include adulterant substances (including dilution, substitution, concealment, etc), tampering, theft, diversion or grey market, over-runs or unauthorised production, and simulations and intellectual property rights counterfeiting. While the greatest health hazard is usually from adulterant substances and counterfeits, reducing the fraud opportunity is the most efficient focus for prevention of the fraud.

Food fraud is one of the most active global food industry and regulatory issues, with food companies and agencies being held accountable by consumers and agencies for food fraud prevention. Beyond the potentially catastrophic economic impact of a recall or manufacturing shutdown, corporate officials are also being held personally criminally liable for incidents. For these and other reasons discussed in the SIB, there has been an intense focus on food fraud research and specifically on prevention.

In its review of incidents, the SIB notes the lack of a strategic or holistic approach to fraud prevention and the global megatrends that have led to food fraud becoming a more recognisable threat. How food is determined to be safe and its impact on the goal of preventing, rather than catching, food fraud is discussed, as is the need for an interdisciplinary approach to understanding fraud opportunity. Criminology and business fraud theories are also applicable to food fraud prevention and are addressed in the SIB, along with regulatory and business food fraud prevention strategies.

Traditional detection and alert systems often do not detect food fraud because there is usually no health hazard. The SIB concludes that the role of food science and technology will be in developing the specific tests and methods that prevent food fraud and, most importantly, in taking a holistic, all-encompassing view of food fraud prevention.

The complete SIB can be downloaded here.