News

The Food Fraud Prevention Academy is a group run out of Michegan State University by Prof John Spink, one of FAN's Advisory Board members.  The Academy offer a number of MOOCs (Massive Online Open Courses) in the fields of Food Fraud Prevention.  They have recently added a free course in Advanced Criminology

https://foodfraudpreventionthinktank.com/courses/food-fraud-prevention-advanced-criminology-mooc-ffca/

This new course provides an overview of Advanced Criminology and an introduction to the Food Fraud Incident Template. It was developed after a request from the private and public sectors because of the need for a standardized template and publicly available training.

The foundation of this course is the Food Fraud Incident Template, which is a simple survey that helps gather complete information – or clearly identifies what information is missing, unavailable, or unknowable.

The template is based on criminology concepts which are covered in other MOOCs from the Academy, including Intelligence Analysis, Food Document Fraud, and the Food Fraud Suspicious Activity Report (FFSAR).  The topic was developed during  INTERPOL/ Europol Operation OPSON meetings over the past five years.

The term Point of Contact (POC) testing relates to a mode of analytical testing that can be conducted at the point of sampling, with a minimal requirement for analyst training, providing easily interpreted results in real-time.

This e-seminar provides an overview of POC testing, describes the range of analytical techniques that have been adopted, and lists examples of current and emerging devices for use with POC testing; It has been added to the e-seminars part of the Training section.

The e-seminar is intended for individuals working in academia, the food industry and those involved with the UK official control system.

The production of this e-seminar was funded by the UK Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, the Food Standards Agency, Food Standards Scotland and the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy, BEIS, via the Government Chemist, under the Joint Knowledge Transfer Framework for Food Standards and Food Safety Analysis. Cofunding was provided by the Scottish Government's National Transition Training Fund programme in collaboration with the Manufacturing Skills Academy at the National Manufacturing Institute Scotland.

Since our inception in July 2015, we have been fortunate to have had Dr Mark Woolfe as our Secretary.

Mark has had a long and distinguished career applying science to Government food policy. He represented the UK in negotiations on EU food law and implementation into national food law ,and also in international food standards on numerous EU, BSI, CEN and Codex Alimentarius Committees. Mark was Head of the Food Authenticity Programme at the Food Standards Agency and was responsible for the creation of the food authenticity programme, which developed state of the art methods to authenticate food, enforce food standards legislation and prevent food fraud.

Mark has decided that it is time to retire from his role as Secretary of the Food Authenticity Network (FAN). I want to thank Mark sincerely for his hard work and dedication that have helped make FAN the success it is today. Although Mark is leaving the Secretary role, I am delighted to announce that he will remain part of the FAN team, becoming our Chief Scientific Advisor from 1 April 2023.

The new FAN Secretary from 1 April 2023 will be John Points. John’s background is as an analytical chemist and he has been working in the food measurement arena for over 30 years. John is an independent consultant advising food businesses on identification and mitigation of fraud and authenticity risks. John is the Chair of the Institute of Food Science and Technology (IFST) Scientific Committee, a member of the Society of Chemical Industry (SCI) Food Interest Group and is listed on the Food Standards Agency’s Register of Specialists for topics relating to food authenticity testing.

I look forward to working with John as our Secretary.

Selvarani Elahi

Executive Director, Food Authenticity Network

The Joint FAO/IAEA Centre of Nuclear Techniques in Food and Agriculture assists Member States of the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO) and the IAEA in using nuclear techniques and related technologies to improve food security, alleviate poverty and promote sustainable agriculture. The Joint Centre consists of five Sections, each with an associated laboratory (located in Seibersdorf, 45 km south-east of Vienna), in the areas of: animal production and health; plant breeding and genetics; insect pest control; soil and water management and crop nutrition; and food and environmental protection.

The Food Safety and Control Section and Laboratory assist Member States in ensuring the safety and quality of food and agricultural commodities through the development of analytical techniques and application of food irradiation, focusing on the use of nuclear and related technologies in the management of food and environmental hazards and on strengthening capacities for nuclear emergency preparedness and response in agriculture.

Main Purpose

As member of a team reporting to the Director of the Joint FAO/IAEA Centre, the Section Head ensures that the activities of the Food Safety and Control Section and its laboratory contribute to the Joint FAO/IAEA Programme relating to the improvement of food safety and quality and increased international food trade through the use of nuclear and related techniques, as well as preparedness and response to nuclear emergencies and radiological events affecting food and agriculture.

Role

The Section Head is:

1) a team leader, ensuring the efficient and effective management of assigned staff, physical and financial resources in line with quality management standards and a results-based approach;

2) a technical leader, leading a multidisciplinary team in the Section focused on ensuring the efficient and effective planning, development and implementation of programmatic activities, capacity building, technical support, policy advice for Member States, and information exchange as it relates to the Joint FAO/IAEA programme, and;

3) a technical officer, evaluating and providing technical management for technical cooperation (TC) projects, and providing technical support to coordinated research projects (CRPs) in the area of food safety & quality control.

Closing Date: 2023-04-27, 11:59:00 PM

Visit here for further information and to apply.

Labelling can help consumers make informed, healthy and sustainable food choices.

The European Commission’s Joint Research Centre (JRC) publishes the results of a scientific study related to food information to consumers on origin labelling.

The European Commission will use the findings of these studies as input for a proposal to revise the EU rules on the information provided to consumers as part of the EU’s ‘Farm-to-Fork’ Strategy and Europe’s Beating Cancer Plan.

The scientists reviewed the literature on the impact of origin information of food products on purchase decisions and consumption. They looked into how and why consumers use, understand, and are influenced by origin information, coming to the following conclusions:

• Information about both country of origin and place or region of origin has a substantial influence on consumers’ food choices.
• Consumers attach importance to origin information as:
  1. a cue to good quality and environmentally friendly products;
  2. on average they like to support their local or domestic farmers and food industry.
• Consumers report (in surveys) that they attach importance to origin information. However, when actually shopping, they may focus less on origin information than they would like to (because of time pressure, the attractiveness of brands etc.).

Read the full report: Consumer understanding of origin labelling on food packaging and its impact on consumer product evaluation and choices: A systematic literature review.

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 official controls and other official activities performed to ensure the application of food and feed law, rules on animal health and welfare, plant health and plant protection products.

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.

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:
Sweden: https://ec.europa.eu/food/audits-analysis/audit-report/details/4421
Latvia: https://ec.europa.eu/food/audits-analysis/audit-report/details/4432
Poland: https://ec.europa.eu/food/audits-analysis/audit-report/details/4461
Germany: https://ec.europa.eu/food/audits-analysis/audit-report/details/4511
Portugal: https://ec.europa.eu/food/audits-analysis/audit-report/details/4561
Bulgaria: https://ec.europa.eu/food/audits-analysis/audit-report/details/4560

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. 

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 one-size-fits-all solution across all sectors does not exist and provides key considerations for undertaking vulnerability assessments.

Furthermore, the use of mechanisms for the exchange of information between competent authorities on suspicions of fraudulent practices and criminal investigations (fraud part of iRASFF, Secure Information Exchange Network Application - SIENA, etc.) is crucial.

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

DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.2760/31366

The Genetic Technology (Precision Breeding) Act passed into law on 23 March 2023. It is a major step in unlocking growth and innovation in new technologies, reinforcing food security in the face of climate change and ensuring England becomes a world-leader in agri-food innovation. The Act will set in motion changes to allow farmers to grow crops which are drought and disease resistant, reduce use of fertilisers and pesticides, and help breed animals that are protected from catching harmful diseases. Precision breeding involves using technologies such as gene editing to adapt the genetic DNA of organisms – creating beneficial traits in plants that through traditional, breeding would take decades to achieve. This enables scientists to safely create foods that are more flexible, adaptable and plentiful for years to come.

Read the Defra Press Release and the BBC article

  The Scottish Food Crime & Incidents Unit (SFCIU) is a branch within Food Standards Scotland (FSS) which takes the lead role in the investigation of food crime. It has published its Control Strategy 2022-25 in conjunction with the NFCU (National Food Crime Unit) and was informed by the UK’s Food Crime Strategic Assessment, which FSS (Food Standards Scotland) developed with the FSA (Food Standards Agency). It outlines the food crime priorities and actions being taken to prevent food crime, detect and deter criminality and prosecute offenders. The Control Strategy looks to manage the threat of food crime and set out a clear path in what is a complex and challenging area. This work assessed information and intelligence from a range of sources and was supported by contributions from partner agencies and industry. It draws on the Divert, Deter, Detect and Disrupt framework, as utilised by the Scottish Government in their Serious Organised Crime (SOC) strategy, and which has been adopted by FSS to outline the key strategic objectives in the approach to tackling food crime.

You can download the Food Crime Strategy document here

The NFCU (National Food Crime Unit) part of the Food Standards Agency is investigating allegations of mislabelling of the origin of pork and sometimes selling rotten meat to retailers at least up to the end of 2020. Meat produced by the supplier, as yet unnamed, is reported to have ended up in products such as ready meals, quiches, sandwiches and other produce sold to the UK major retailers. The alleged supply chain fraud was investigated by the journal the "Farmers Weekly".

Read the article here  

In addition, please looked at the LinkedIn entry about this fraud as it discusses the significance of it to food businesses and "What It Means For Me".

In our March 2023 Newsletter, we have published the following articles:

- A new FAN Open Data Project.                                                                                                                                                                                                - Agreement on a Framework for a Coordinated Response from Centres of Expertise to Food and Feed Fraud Incidents/Investigations.                              - 2023 Call for New Centres of Expertise.                                                                                                                                                                                  - An Interlaboratory Trial of a Mass Spectrometry Method for Meat Species Determination.                                                                                                    - New EU Food Project - TRUSTFOOD.                                                                                                                                                                                    - BRCGS - START Programme.                                                                                                                                                                                                - CoE Profile -  SGS United Kingdom Ltd.                                                                                                                                                                                  -Tools to Mitigate the Risk of Being a Victim of Food Fraud.                                                                                                                                                      - Foods Most Reported as Fraudulent - 2022 Data, FoodChain ID.                                                                                                                                          - Food Authenticity Network 2022 Annual Summary.

You can download the Newsletter here

This poster style document is a 2022 summary of all the news about our membership and users of the website, our activities in global standards organisations and national and international events. It summarises the new content put on the website in terms of news items and events, also a framework document for CoEs to respond to food fraud incidents, a new food fraud definitions page, and a Partners page and Standardisation page.

You can download the Annual Summary here

Under EU legislation, raw beef sold chilled, frozen or minced has to declare the country/countries where the animal was born, reared, slaughtered and butchered. Therefore, developing methods to verify the origin of beef is important both to enforce the legislation and prevent fraud. This study was undertaken and funded as part of the EU Project TRACE. Two hundred and twenty seven samples of authentic beef were collected from 13 regions in 8 European countries, and their  hydrogen (²H/¹H), carbon (¹³C/¹²C), nitrogen (¹⁵N/¹⁴N), and sulphur (³⁴S/³²S) isotope ratios determined. The results show the potential of this technique to detect clustering of samples due to specific environmental conditions in the areas where the beef cattle were reared. In particular, they highlighted statistical differences between coastal and inland regions, production sites at different latitudes, regions with different geology, and different farming systems related to whether the animals were consuming primarily C3 - or C4-based diets or a mixed one. 

Read the full open access paper

Do you have an authenticity database or datasets?

The Food Authenticity Network (FAN) is undertaking a project on ‘Open Data’ funded by its Government Partners, which seeks to collate of list of organisations that have food authenticity datasets i.e. assessed foods or beverages against a reference database of authentic samples. This could be any analytical, physical or sensory testing technique, or combination of techniques, that matches against patterns of multivariate data.

We are interested to know about both proprietary in-house reference databases and uses of shared data sets. We would like to include both laboratories offering a current testing service and research groups and others who hold data from previous projects.

Photo by Markus Spiske on Unsplash

If you have, or use, reference datasets for an “authentic” food or beverage and are willing for this to be signposted on the FAN website then please contact: OpenData@foodauthenticity.global

Thank you

Food Authenticity Network Executive Team

Today, the European Commission has published the results of the EU-wide coordinated action “From the Hives” on honey contaminated with sugars.

These investigations aimed to put a stop to operators voluntarily placing contaminated honey onto the EU market and sanction them accordingly if needed. Of the 320 samples taken at EU borders and analysed by the Joint Research Centre (JRC), 147 (46%) were suspected of being non-compliant.

This suspicion rate was considerably higher in comparison to an earlier EU-wide coordinated control plan conducted in 2015-17, where 14% of the analysed samples did not comply with established benchmark criteria to assess honey authenticity.

However, the JRC applied a different set of methods, with improved detection capability, throughout the current exercise, which may explain this contrast.

For more information:

• Q&A (DG SANTE)
• Video (OLAF)
• Press Release (JRC)
• Press release (OLAF)

 This review describes all the available DNA methods, which can detect pork in foods, as a basis for Halal verification. The review describes the following assays: Singleplex and Multiplex PCR, PCR-RAPD and PCR-RFLP, Real Time-PCR, DNA-Barcoding, Loop-mediated isothermal amplification (LAMP), Biosensor - optic and electrochemical, and CRISPR/Cas12. It discusses the detail probes, primers etc as well as the advantages and disadvantages of each method.

Read the full open-access paper

Compound-specific stable isotope analysis (CSIA) of food products is a relatively new and novel technique used to authenticate food and detect adulteration. This paper reviews recent applications of CSIA to authenticate the origin of different foods. CSIA δ¹³C values are widely used to verify geographical origin, organic production, and adulteration. The δ¹⁵N values of individual amino acids and nitrate fertilizers have proven effective to authenticate organic foods, while δ²H and δ¹⁸O values are useful to link food products with local precipitation for geographical origin verification. CSIA has a stronger analytical advantage for the authentication of food compared to bulk stable isotope analysis, especially for honey, beverages, essential oils, and processed foods.

Read the abstract here

EVOO is a high value edible oil, which is susceptible to adulteration and extension. This study looks at proof of concept for screening EVOO-filled containers non-invasively for adulteration without any sample extraction by capturing the differences in the dielectric properties of mixed oils. The
sensor system displayed a fast response (100 ms) and  detection limits for different adulterants/extenders (refined olive oil (32.8%), rapeseed oil (19.4%), soya oil (10.3%) and castor oil (1.7%)), which is suitable for high-throughput (>60 sample/min) screening. The sensors do not work with metal containers, only plastic ones. Furthermore, a low-cost automated system prototype was tested to of translate the proof of concept for possible scaling up, but further work is required to expand the range of possible adulterants and reduce the detection limits.

Read the full paper here

Consumers are demanding to know the origin of the food they buy, which can have a higher value depending on the origin and whether the food is a PDO (protected denomination of origin), or PGI (protected geographical indication). The elemental fingerprint of food is an efficient way to authenticate its geographical origin. Control laboratories are accredited and properly equipped for elemental analysis, and standardisation and comparability of results is warranted.

Download the Science for Policy Brief here

The European Commission's Joint Research Centre (JRC) has published its February 2023 Food Fraud Monthly Summary reporting food fraud incidents and investigations from around the world. These have been kindly represented as an infographic above by our Member Bruno Séchet, and thanks for allowing us to share it with the rest of the Network.

Also included in the Summary are links to two other interesting items, including a study investigating food fraud during Covid-19 and the mitigation strategies applied in UK, and a short documentary on food fraud by CNBC.

You can download the February 2023 Summary here

"Which foods are most adulterated?" is a question that the Food Authenticity Network is frequently asked, so we are delighted to be continuing to collaborate with FoodChain ID to provide this information. 

Foods most reported as being fraudulent based on data from the FoodChain ID Food Fraud Database, are posted on an annual basis in the Food Fraud Prevention section of the Food Authenticity Network website.

The 2022 data has just been added to the 'Most adulterated foods' section.