SUMMARY FOR FOOD FRAUD AND MITIGATION (FQD-36306)
Lecture 1 Introduction to food fraud
Definition of food fraud; fraud with non-food products examples.
Definition food fraud: Demarcation of fraud is deceiving others on purpose for personal gain
(economical gain etc.).
You don’t need to detect food fraud but you need to prevent it. When you detect it the food is
already in the house with the consumers.
The European Union is still deliberating about a definition of food fraud. Global Food Safety Initiative
(GFSI) has the following definition of food fraud:
“A collective term encompassing the deliberate and intentional substitution, addition, tampering, or
misrepresentation of food, food ingredients or food packaging, labelling, production information, or
false or misleading statements made about a product for economic gain that could impact consumer
health.”
Example fraud with non-food product: Identity fraud (is when criminals use forged or stolen identity
information, for instance to buy goods in someone else's name and avoid having to pay).
Differences between food quality, safety, fraud and defense.
Food fraud: Any deliberate action of businesses or individuals to deceive others in regards to the
integrity of food to gain undue advantage
Food quality: The sum of all properties and attributes of a food item that are acceptable to the
customer.
Food safety: To protect consumers of food products from foodborne diseases or injuries related to
food consumption.
Food defense: The protection of food products from contamination or adulteration intended to cause
public health harm or economic disruption
Differences between counterfeiting and adulteration and examples.
Counterfeits:
- 100% fake, imitation, counterfeits
- Usually expensive, premium brands
- Outside usual chain
,- Sometimes organized crime (= crime for business)
- Example the expensive vintage wines in the sour grapes documentary
Adulteration:
- The addition or subtraction of any substance to or from food, so that the natural composition and
quality of food substance is affected
- Part fakes: removal of fractions, ingredients or constituent, addition of replacements, ‘enhancers’ or
concealers
- Substitution: species adulteration (for example the cows meat with horse meat, but also with spices
because they are expensive)
Types of food fraud and examples (compositional, geographical origin, etc.)
Different types of food fraud defined by the European Commission
1. Counterfeiting (imitation), different types of 100% fakes:
- Brand squats
- Full copies
- Refills of original packaging
- Non-compliant materials
- Product overruns
Most often (alcoholic) beverages are targeted with food fraud, the biggest producers are in Asia/
Europe.
2. Grey market/ theft/ diversion
Import tax that is lower from a particular country
Part fakes:
- Removal of fractions, ingredients or constituents
- Addition of replacements, ‘enhancers’ or concealers
3. Substitution: species adulteration (for example the cows meat with horse meat, but also with
spices because they are expensive)
4. Dilution: Other vegetables oils addition
5. Unapproved enhancements
6. Concealment: people do this to conceal the fraud
7. Unapproved treatment: heat-treated milk instead of raw milk in cheese
,8. Mislabeling: production management system, is it fresh or frozen more often
Lecture 2 Past, present and future of food fraud
Changes in food fraud with time aligned with food production/societal changes.
Food was scarce and simple primitive man:
- Plants and fruits straight to mouth
- Caught animals were eaten raw
- Shelf-life of most foods was fairly limited
Discovery of fire:
- Extension of day time
- Kept away predators
- Used for food preparation
- Made food taste better
- Destroyed micro-organisms – safer food
- Broke down carbohydrates – increased nutritional value of foods
Through the ages:
- Food technology Preservation by fermentation, sugar, salt, acids
- Extraction: tea, coffee
- Distillation: spirits
- From middle of 19th century: food production on an industrial scale, disconnecting people
from food production
What kinds of adulteration ancient times?
- Romans had limited access to sweeteners. Lead acetate for sweetening, from boiling grape
juice (must) in lead kettles. For wine or food dishes. Unwittingly but very toxic.
- Pepper in Roman times. Juniper berries, myrtle berries, mustard seeds were used to extend
pepper
- Documentation relating to the first century AD describes the falsification of olive oil by a
product made from wood, leaves, and berries of trees, and the falsification of wine by a
substance made from a variety of plant.
Existence of early food laws; examples of the many food frauds in the 19th century.
Early food fraud and protection:
- Consumer protection, in the field of adulteration and falsification of food, represents one of
the earliest forms of government regulation of commercial enterprises.
, - “Food Laws” in one form or another, such as religious tenets or prohibitions, were inherent
in all ancient civilizations and have come down to us from early time.
- French penalties for violations ~1480
Medieval times: “Everything that may be harmful to the public . . . all that may cause deception and
falsification . . . especially to those ignorant in the matter must be prevented or suppressed”.
Examples food fraud 19th Century:
- Sugar weighted with sand
- Watered-down milk containing chalk and flour
- Lead in wine and cider
- Iron sulphate in tea
- Hallucinogenic chemicals and copper in rum and beer
- Many other potentially lethal ingredients in commonly consumed food
19th Century as accelerator of food fraud (explain why?).
Middle of 19th century industrialization explosion of food adulteration
From middle of 19th century: food production on an industrial scale, disconnecting people from food
production. In fact, it was hard to find a basic foodstuff in the early nineteenth century that had not
been tampered with in some way. At that time the general food law did not exist yet, so there were
no controls in the food industry (no consequences for the brands if they committed food fraud).
There were no advanced technologies to probably detect food fraud/ adulteration. That caused an
explosion of food adulteration.
The proliferation of newly discovered chemicals and the absence of laws moderating their use, made
it possible for unscrupulous merchants to use them to boost profits at a cost to the public health.
Fredrich Accum (who was he, what did he write, why was this/were his actions unique?).
Fredrick Accum raised the alarm about food fraud.
Who was he?
He was a German chemist, but lived in London.
What did he write?
In 1820 Accum began the public struggle against harmful food additives with his book entitled ‘A
Treatise on Adulterations of Food and Culinary Poisons’.
