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Measures to monitor meat substitution are in place in many developed countries, however, information about similar efforts in sub-Saharan Africa is sparse. Kenyan researchers have developed a PCR-HRM (High Resolution Melting) analysis targeting three mitochondrial genes—cytochrome oxidase 1 (CO1), cytochrome b (cyt b), and 16S rRNA, to detect 7 species ( goat, sheep, bovines, pig, camel, rabbit and chicken) of commercially traded meat in Kenya. One hundred and seven meat samples (whole pieces) were collected from randomly selected stalls in Nairobi’s major meat wholesale market (Burma market) and butcheries in the 10 surrounding districts.  Out of the 107 samples, 11 (10.3%) had been substituted, with the highest rate being observed in samples sold as goat (7 out of 30 samples). The PCR-HRM assay worked with fresh, dried, heated and decomposed meat, as well as admixtures of the different species. and is regarded as a robust and reliable assay for meat species.

Read the full open-access paper here

Abstract

In a report to the Food Standards Agency's (FSA) Board in December, Emily Miles, FSA's Chief Executive reported on the active investigations being carried out by the NFCU. These include: 

Operation Atlas - concerning the sale of 2,4 dinitrophenol in controlled drugs and presciption only medicines. A successful prosecution has taken place in this operation.

Operation Aspen - where fraudsters posing as UK catering franchises online had obtained obtained hundreds of thousands pounds worth of food products from European businesses.

Operation Bantam - where fraudsters have obtained illicit poultry animal by-products (ABP) not fit for human consumption, processed them and diverted them into the human food chain. The NFCU is working with several local authorities investigating businesses involved with this trade, and two are taking prosecutions.

Operation Hawk -  is exploring large scale misrepresentation of country of origin on packed meat products.

Operation Boston - concerns the diversion of Category 3 animal by-products into the human food chain, as well as the supply of substandard and misdescribed red meat to Ghana.

Read the full article here

The European Commission Joint Research Center (JRC) has published its monthly summary on articles covering food fraud and adulteration. In this November issue, there are articles on frauds involving wine, alcoholic beverages, milk and milk products, herbs and spices, cereals, meat products, seafood, cocoa, tea, fruits and vegetables, oils and honey.

Read the full summary of articles at: https://knowledge4policy.ec.europa.eu/publication/food-fraud-summary-november-2021_en

Many thanks to our Members Riccardo Siligato PhD LLM (for producing the report) and Bruno Sechet (for producing the infographic).

The United States Food and Drug Administration has created a dedicated webpage on food fraud. The page gives information on:

• How to report food fraud
• Examples of food fraud
• How FDA fights food fraud
• Enforcement and legal consequences
• Guidance documents
• Import alerts
• Research publications
• Additional resources.

Visit the FDA Food Fraud webpage here.

Emerging regulations and industry standards are requiring risk and vulnerability assessments of Food Fraud as a prerequisite to countermeasures and decision-making systems.

These assessments and risk management systems are not familiar food safety tools. It is effective and efficient to utilize an enterprise risk management (ERM) framework, such as developed by the Committee of the Sponsoring Companies of the Treadway Commission (COSO).

ERM risk assessment occurs into two stages: (1) a qualitative initial screening followed by (2) a more detailed quantitative assessment. All types of Food Fraud can result in enterprise-wide risks so an enterprise risk management system must cover all types of vulnerabilities.

The model developed in this paper addresses the unmet need of the first stage referred to here as the Food Fraud Initial Screening (FFIS).

Access the full paper here.

Herbs are high value ingredients, which are vulnerable to adulteration and fraud. Confirmatory methods based on DNA analysis have shown to be the most useful in investigating herb adulteration. In this study, a customised database and bioinformatics pipeline was developed based on a DNA barcoding metagenomics approach to herbal species identification. The pipeline performance was tested with publicly available datasets, as well as, newly sequenced herbal plants and products. The usefulness of metagenomics is limited by the availability of reference sequences and the need for sequencing depth.  However, this method shows promise for evaluating the authenticity of different herbal products provided that it is further refined to increase the qualitative and quantitative accuracy.

You can read tihe full open access paper. 

This is Tenet's first edition of their quarterly newsletter specifically focused on the prevention and protection against fraud and financial crime for the food sector.

In each issue, Tenet will provide articles to assist with fraud prevention planning, advice on protecting brand integrity and recomendations to improve quality control - all from a legal perspective.

 A new type of crime that goes to the heart of what we eat. Criminal syndicates are infiltrating the global food supply chain, undermining the ability of consumers to trust what is on the label and what ends up on their plate.

This episode was aired 2 weeks ago and is available until 20 October 2021: 

https://iview.abc.net.au/show/four-corners/

and then select the food fraud video

In spring 2021, Oceana Canada tested 94 seafood samples from retailers and restaurants in four major
Canadian cities: Toronto, Montreal, Ottawa and Halifax and found that of the samples tested, 46 per cent were mislabelled.

This is consistent with national testing conducted between 2017-2019, which showed that 47 per cent of 472 seafood samples tested were mislabelled in some way. Of these,
51 per cent of 373 samples were previously mislabelled in the same four cities tested.

Read full report.

Alcohol has emerged as the sector with the largest number of counterfeit cases in India in 2020, with experts attributing this to a lack of enforcement as well as high profits available for counterfeiters during the COVID-19 crisis.

Apart from alcohol, multiple other everyday food items in India including cumin seeds, mustard oil and ghee were mentioned as major sectors affected by counterfeiting activity.

Read full article.

A new environmentally friendly prototype sensor has been developed by CSIRO, Australia's national science agency, to help combat food-fraud and protect the reputation of Australian produce.

The novel technology uses vibration energy harvesting and machine learning to accurately detect anomalies in the transportation of products such as meat. 

For example, if a refrigeration truck carrying exported meat stopped during its journey to the processing plant, the technology would be able to detect this and if any products had been moved or removed during this period.

This allows producers and logistics operators to pin-point handling errors and identify when products are stolen or substituted.

Read full article.

Truffles: the most expensive food on earth and a target for food fraud

The International Association for Food Protection (IAFP) (https://www.foodprotection.org/) is one of the three largest food-related professional associations, with more than 4,500 individual food safety professionals focusing on “advancing food safety worldwide.” IAFP started in 1911 as the International Association of Dairy and Milk Inspectors. Their focus expanded to food sanitarians and the current, broader food protection focus. For those of you not familiar with the food industry, “The term public health sanitarian shall mean a person who applies the principles of the natural and social sciences for the detection, evaluation, control and management of those factors in the environment which influence the public’s health.” (reference)

IAFP also is the publisher of several scholarly journals, including the Journal of Food Protection and Food Protection Trends. “The Journal of Food Protection is the leading publication in the field of food microbiology and remains the premier journal dedicated to food safety.”

The IAFP Food Fraud Professional Development Group has published an “interest survey” to be completed by IAFP and PDG members, plus the public at large. We are reviewing our direction for 2021 and beyond. This survey is your opportunity to be heard and to help lead the direction of food fraud prevention.

The survey takes only a few minutes to complete. 

Link to the survey: https://www.surveymonkey.com/r/FfPdg2021JulyIntroduction

QR code to the survey:

Between September and December 2020, Belgian Federal Agency for the Safety of the Food Chain (FASFC) inspectors took 45 samples of fresh and frozen tuna from retailers and frozen tuna from wholesalers, and carried out 92 types of analysis.The objective of the operation was to detect the use and frequency of chemical treatments that are used to hide the spoilage of the fish going brown, and passing it off as a fresher item, which retains its red colour. The FASFC analysed for the treatment with colourants, ascorbic acid, nitrite and nitrates, and carbon monoxide. 

More than 35 tons of tuna was seized having been treated with carbon monoxide. Almost half of the 25 samples tested had been treated with nitrite or nitrate. Sixteen of 29 samples tested were non-compliant for amounts of ascorbic acid, which has a limit of 300 mg/kg under EU Regulations.

As a result of the fraud discovered in 2020, the AFSCA will include testing for carbon monoxide treatment in routine checks as part of its control plan in 2021 and will increase inspections on imports of tuna from non-EU countries.

Read the article here

In March 2021, the FAO Regional Office for Asia and the Pacific published a booklet entitled “Food fraud – Intention, detection and management”. This concise resource explains the key aspects of food fraud, and discusses a set of measures that food safety authorities can take to stop food fraud. Among these, legal interventions combined with the use of new technologies are promising tools.

Examples of these interventions, such as adopting a definition for food fraud and implementing food standards as well as applying DNA barcoding and blockchain technology, are included in the booklet. Links are readily available in the booklet for those who wish to have greater know-how on the guidance on food labelling, technological interventions and food import and export certification systems provided by FAO and the Codex Alimentarius.

Download the publication:
FAO Food safety toolkit booklet 5 - Food fraud – Intention, detection and management

For more information:

• Handbook on food labelling to protect consumers
• Food for thought on food fraud. Development Law – Issue 1
• Codex Committee on Food Import and Export Inspection and Certification Systems. Discussion Paper on “Food Integrity and Food Authenticity”, CX/FICS 18/24/7
• Food safety page - FAO Regional Office for Asia and the Pacific 

This report contextualises the topic of food fraud across Canada’s agri-food system and presents a novel intervention framework to Deter, Identify and Prosecute (DIP) food fraud.

In this context, deter refers to the strengthening of regulatory and legal deterrents. Identify refers to the
scientific methods to identify food fraud and prosecute refers to the ability to use
the scientific evidence as a basis to prosecute bad actors.

The authors believe that this novel framework captures and integrates the key components which are essential
to reducing the risk of food fraud in Canada.

Read full report.

Two men and one woman accused of being at the basis of Belgium’s biggest-ever food fraud have been sentenced by a court in Antwerp.

The three were among seven accused and four companies charged with using the insecticide Fipronil (flea control products for pets) in the cleaning of poultry farms. The pollution that was caused as a result led to the destruction of two million hens and 77 million eggs that were polluted with the chemical.

The court heard, that one of the accused failed to inform the poultry farmers of the contents of the product he was using, which was indeed effective in controlling pests, were it not for the small problem of contamination with a banned product. According to witnesses, he told prospective customers the product his company used was reinforced with menthol and eucalyptus.

Read full article here.

This report identifies the trends and associated risks likely to impact global supply chains in the year ahead. BSI predicts the following trends will likely dominate the global supply chain:

• Ongoing challenges from COVID-19 creates new threats for organisations in the coming months
• Economic hardship increases the risk of labor exploitation, human rights violations, and stowaway smuggling
• Drug smuggling trends remain consistent, however, means and methods will continue to change and evolve due to COVID-19
• Food fraud and safety will continue to challenge supply chain resilience
• Regulatory changes will test organisational adaptability

Read the article here or register for the full report here