best practice - News - FoodAuthenticity2024-03-29T12:28:48Zhttps://www.foodauthenticity.global/blog/feed/tag/best%2BpracticeJRC Report: Fighting fraudulent and deceptive practices in the agri-food chainhttps://www.foodauthenticity.global/blog/jrc-report-fighting-fraudulent-and-deceptive-practices-in-the-agr2023-04-05T11:35:15.000Z2023-04-05T11:35:15.000ZSelvarani Elahihttps://www.foodauthenticity.global/members/SelvaraniElahi869<div><p><img class="align-left" src="{{#staticFileLink}}11021298462,RESIZE_710x{{/staticFileLink}}" alt="11021298462?profile=RESIZE_710x" width="276" height="391" /></p>
<p>This Technical Report presents challenges, opportunities and good practice examples in relation to the implementation of Article 9(2) of Regulation (EU) 2017/625 of the European Parliament and of the Council of 15 March 2017 on <strong>official controls and other official activities performed to ensure the application of food and feed law</strong>, rules on animal health and welfare, plant health and plant protection products.</p>
<p>Competent authorities of the Member States are required to not only detect violations of the rules governing the agri-food chain but also to identify possible intentional violations of those rules, perpetrated through fraudulent or deceptive practices by operators for the purpose of gaining an undue advantage.</p>
<p>Between 2020 and 2022 a series of pilot and fact-finding studies of eight Member States were carried out with the aim to identify good practice examples and challenges Member State authorities face with the implementation of fraud related controls. The results of these fact-finding studies form the basis of this report. The reports of the six fact findings studies have also been published: <br /> Sweden: <a href="https://ec.europa.eu/food/audits-analysis/audit-report/details/4421">https://ec.europa.eu/food/audits-analysis/audit-report/details/4421</a><br /> Latvia: <a href="https://ec.europa.eu/food/audits-analysis/audit-report/details/4432">https://ec.europa.eu/food/audits-analysis/audit-report/details/4432</a><br /> Poland: <a href="https://ec.europa.eu/food/audits-analysis/audit-report/details/4461">https://ec.europa.eu/food/audits-analysis/audit-report/details/4461</a><br /> Germany: <a href="https://ec.europa.eu/food/audits-analysis/audit-report/details/4511">https://ec.europa.eu/food/audits-analysis/audit-report/details/4511</a><br /> Portugal: <a href="https://ec.europa.eu/food/audits-analysis/audit-report/details/4561">https://ec.europa.eu/food/audits-analysis/audit-report/details/4561</a><br /> Bulgaria: <a href="https://ec.europa.eu/food/audits-analysis/audit-report/details/4560">https://ec.europa.eu/food/audits-analysis/audit-report/details/4560</a></p>
<p>The report states that as fraud is driven by opportunity and motivation, detecting fraud requires good knowledge about the sector, the fraud risks and the way fraudsters operate. </p>
<p>The report advocates a risk-based approach based on a vulnerability assessment. The best approach to risk-based planning will differ between authorities, control areas and Member States, but the risk-based planning should be based on a vulnerability assessment. A fraud risk assessment should be tailored to the control areas for which the competent authority is responsible. The report acknowledges that a <strong>one-size-fits-all solution across all sectors does not exist</strong> and provides key considerations for undertaking vulnerability assessments.</p>
<p>Furthermore, the use of mechanisms for the exchange of information between competent authorities on suspicions of fraudulent practices and criminal investigations (fraud part of <a href="https://ec.europa.eu/commission/presscorner/detail/en/QANDA_19_6711" target="_blank">iRASFF</a>, Secure Information Exchange Network Application - <a href="https://www.europol.europa.eu/operations-services-and-innovation/services-support/information-exchange/secure-information-exchange-network-application-siena" target="_blank">SIENA</a>, etc.) is crucial.</p>
<p>The purpose of this technical report therefore is to promote the uniform interpretation and application of the provisions of Article 9(2) of Regulation (EU) 2017/625</p>
<p>DOI: <a href="http://dx.doi.org/10.2760/31366">http://dx.doi.org/10.2760/31366</a></p></div>National Food Crime Unit's European distribution fraud questionnairehttps://www.foodauthenticity.global/blog/national-food-crime-unit-european-distribution-fraud-questionnair2022-02-22T12:54:03.000Z2022-02-22T12:54:03.000ZSelvarani Elahihttps://www.foodauthenticity.global/members/SelvaraniElahi869<div><p><img class="align-left" src="{{#staticFileLink}}10144795084,RESIZE_400x{{/staticFileLink}}" alt="10144795084?profile=RESIZE_400x" width="225" />The European distribution fraud (EDF) questionnaire has been created by the National Food Crime Unit (NFCU) for the food industry to help fully understand potential vulnerabilities regarding EDF.</p>
<p>The NFCU would like to invite you to complete this questionnaire as the data captured will help in the development of bespoke materials to address these issues and share best practice amongst industry allowing food businesses to potentially develop/implement procedures to protect themselves from EDF.</p>
<p>The questionnaire should take no more than 10 minutes of your time. All submissions are anonymous unless you choose to provide your companies name within the questionnaire. If you have any issues accessing the questionnaire or would like to give more information after completing the questionnaire, please send an email to <a href="mailto:NFCU.Prevention@food.gov.uk">NFCU.Prevention@food.gov.uk</a> </p>
<p>Questionnaire <a href="https://forms.office.com/Pages/ResponsePage.aspx?id=-VAcircBikym-pDrkG8Y6e5ZBNKXcV5Kh0VqlOo8pzlUMkhOOU1UUU5LSThCWUw0RjZXWEJIOEc1TC4u" target="_blank">Link</a>.</p></div>Scientific Opinion on the use of NMR applications to tackle future food fraud issues is publishedhttps://www.foodauthenticity.global/blog/scientific-opinion-on-the-use-of-nmr-applications-to-tackle-futur2019-08-19T18:56:06.000Z2019-08-19T18:56:06.000ZSelvarani Elahihttps://www.foodauthenticity.global/members/SelvaraniElahi869<div><p><a href="{{#staticFileLink}}3435350351,RESIZE_710x{{/staticFileLink}}"><img class="align-center" src="{{#staticFileLink}}3435350351,RESIZE_710x{{/staticFileLink}}" alt="3435350351?profile=RESIZE_710x" width="365" />The </a><a href="http://foodintegrity.eu/" target="_blank">EU FoodIntegrity</a> project has published a number of Scientific Opinions on difficult stakeholder derived issues that concern food fraud. The topics were all identified by stakeholders and are intended as documents that describe best practices. The published Scientific Opinions can be found <a href="https://www.foodauthenticity.uk/research">here</a> under the 'Scientific Opinions' tab.</p>
<p>The latest Scientific Opinion published is on "<span class="title-text">Use of NMR applications to tackle future food fraud issues". The SO discusses how both targeted (allows the identification of specific markers of identity/adulteration for a given foodstuff) and untargeted (the chemical profile of the whole foodstuff is used to create a unique fingerprint as a reference for suspect samples) NMR methodologies are applied in routine use for food fraud monitoring. The cost-effective approaches for routine application are discussed using examples of Food Screener™ and benchtop low-field instruments.</span></p></div>New e-Seminar on Digital PCRhttps://www.foodauthenticity.global/blog/new-e-seminar-on-digital-pcr2018-07-23T09:46:40.000Z2018-07-23T09:46:40.000ZS Ellisonhttps://www.foodauthenticity.global/members/SEllison<div><div class="tabContainerSection-pane section-html" style="display: block;" data-tab-id="265850382">
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<p>A new e-seminar on digital PCR has been made availble via the <a href="http://www.foodauthenticity.uk/training" target="_blank" rel="noopener">FoodAuthenticity Training page</a>.</p>
<p>The e-seminar describes the principles behind the digital PCR technique, and gives some good practice guidelines for its use.</p>
<p>The e-seminar will be of interest to researchers and staff currently working in the foods molecular testing area, particularly representatives from UK Official Control Laboratories, industry and members of organisations associated with the UK official control network.</p>
<p>The seminar can be viewed on LGC's YouTube channel at <a href="https://youtu.be/aYAdNA5v8C0" target="_blank" rel="noopener">https://youtu.be/aYAdNA5v8C0</a> or in the frame below.</p>
<p>The e-seminar was produced with support from Defra, FSA, FSS and BEIS under the Joint Knowledge Transfer Framework for Food Standards and Food Safety Analysis.</p>
<p><iframe src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/aYAdNA5v8C0" width="560" height="315" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen="allowfullscreen"></iframe></p>
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</div>Food Supply Chain Vulnerability: A Ti whitepaper in partnership with RQA Grouphttps://www.foodauthenticity.global/blog/food-supply-chain-vulnerability-a-ti-whitepaper-in-partnership-wi2017-01-05T12:27:11.000Z2017-01-05T12:27:11.000ZSelvarani Elahihttps://www.foodauthenticity.global/members/SelvaraniElahi869<div><p align="left"><font size="3">Vulnerability of the food supply chain is one of the hottest topics in the international food industry. Those vulnerabilities</font> <font size="3">are not limited to breaches of physical security, theft and malicious contamination by ideologues, extortionists, criminals or terrorists.</font></p>
<p align="left"><font size="3">In this whitepaper, Ti’s CEO, Professor John Manners-Bell, and Managing Director, RQA Group, Vince Shiers Ph.D., offer insight into the vulnerability of the food supply chain by highlighting the threats and offering analysis of the best practice for securing the supply chain.</font></p>
<p><a href="http://www.ti-insight.com/whitepapers/food-supply-chain-vulnerability-ti-whitepaper-partnership-rqa-group/" target="_blank">Register to download a free copy of the full white paper.</a></p>
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