The Food Authenticity Network (FAN) is pleased to announce support from the Food Industry Intelligence Network (FIIN), an industry-led consortium which enables a collaborative and targeted approach to supply chain assurance.

Both FAN and FIIN were established in 2015 in response to the recommendations of the ‘Elliott Review’ to respectively, bring together global information on food authenticity testing and to create a ‘safe haven’ for industry members to collect, collate, analyse and disseminate information and intelligence to protect the interests of the consumer.

Helen Sisson, Industry Co-Chair of FIIN said, ‘’On behalf of the FIIN membership we are delighted to commit support for the Food Authenticity Network. One of the FIIN founding objectives is to ‘Help ensure the integrity of food supply chains and protect the interests of the consumer’. In order to support delivery of this objective effective authenticity testing, harnessing advances in analytical testing methodologies and identifying competence and capability in the testing arena is pivotal to FIIN succeeding in its goals. The Food Authenticity Network enhances FIIN with these additional capabilities and therefore our support is a natural extension of the FIIN evolution.’’

Selvarani Elahi MBE, UK Deputy Government Chemist and Executive Director, Food Authenticity Network, said: “I am very happy that FIIN has committed to supporting us as FAN and FIIN share many values and both seek to help secure global food supply chains. FIIN and its 48 food industry Members bring a wealth of invaluable global food industry experience to the Food Authenticity Network, and I definitely think we will be stronger by working together.”

Professor Chris Elliott OBE, Queen’s University Belfast and author of the ‘Elliott Report’¹ said: “I am delighted to see how two concepts that were crafted in the Elliott Review have flourished and become such successes. Both FIIN and FAN are unique initiatives with nothing quite like them elsewhere in the world. The challenges of combating food fraud are set to remain and potentially worsen. This collaboration strengthens our position to be able to better combat food fraud collectively and I am very excited to see what FIIN and FAN can achieve together.”

The recently published "Fixing the Future of Food" report, carried out by Veris Strategies, found that 78% of industry leaders (from companies like Nestle, Greencore, World Resources Institute and more) felt that the COVID-19 pandemic has exposed serious weaknesses in the UK food system. Further, 96% of those leaders felt that the UK was not prepared to deal with the long term effects of the pandemic.

The report also polled consumers and found that 90% of consumers believed the pandemic would lead to more sustainable and ethical food systems. 

Read the story on the report from Food & Drink International Magazine here, or download the full report here.

A study conducted by Universidad Nacional Autonoma de Mexico (UNAM) researchers found traces of dolphin meat in three out of 15 samples of tuna cans on sale in Mexico. 

Lead researcher Karla Vanessa Hernendez Herbert used DNA probes with polymerase chain reaction (PCR) to identify dolphin meat adulteration.

The full report has yet to be published in a journal, but the Herbert and Professor Francisco Montiel Sosa disclosed the results in an interview with Mexican newspaper, Excelsior. The original article can be read here in Spanish., or a summary of the article from SeafoodSource can be found here.

Barbara Hirst, Food Safety and Quality Consultant, and Marta Ahijado, Head of Food R&D at RSSL, spoke with New Food Magazine about how the COVID-19 pandemic has affected supply chains, risk assessments and analytical testing.

The pandemic has changed how businesses operate enormously, including their ability to perform physical risk assessments on site, creating new challenges and uncertainty for manufacturers and retailers. For example, disruptions to supply chains can introduce the need for businesses to source new ingredients from new suppliers.

Read the full story on the New Food website to learn more from Barbara and Marta about how businesses are adapting to ensure their assessments are accurate.

The State of Counterfeiting in India 2020 report, performed by the Authentication Solution Provider's Association (ASPA), determined that counterfeit incidents rose by nearly a quarter between 2018 and 2019, with a 21% rise specifically in the food & beverage sector.

The rise in food fraud could negatively impact India's new "Make In India" campaign, which was launched in 2014 and aimed at making India a global hub of manufacturing by encouraging companies to manufacture their products in the companyThe report emphasises the importance of ensuring products are genuine and safe to consumer trust.

Read more about the report and it's details here on Food Navigator Asia.

Officers in China have siezed more than two tonnes of lemons for trademark violations. The lemons had counterfeit labelling which claimed the fruits were produced by fruit brand Utifrutti. Their shipping containers also bore the company's logo.

This marks the second seizure of counterfeit lemons claiming to be Unifrutti products since April.

Read the full story on Securing Industry here.

Michel Neilsen, professor of analytical chemistry at Wageningen University & Research, was recently interviewed about an EU-funded project to develop smartphone-based food screening capabilities.

The FoodSmartphone project aims to develop smartphone-based (bio)analytical sensing and diagnostics tools for simplified on-site rapid pre-screening of food. The three-year project is scheduled to wrap up in December.

Nielsen explains that the project works to develop a device that can be attached or connected to a shopper's smartphone to test for allergens, pesticides, and whether the product is organic. The team hopes to empower shoppers to test food at the shelf.

The interview was recently published by Horizon, the EU Research and Innovation magazine from the European Commission, and can be read here.

Published last week in the journal Food Control, researchers from Queens University Belfast and ABF Food Group compiled a comprehensive review of food fraud terminologies and mitigation guides. 

The review found guidance and terminology which could be used throughout the food industry, including guidance documents on food fraud prevention and mitigation which also touch on the supply chain.

The article, which is not open access at this time, can be accessed here. 

The Institute of Supply Management (ISM), a US-based not-for-profit professional supply management organization, has updated its survey on global supply chain disruptions due to Covid. In the initial release of its survey, ISM found that 75% of respondents reported that their organisations had experienced supply chain disruption. In this update, research indicates that 97% of respondents believe that their organisation's supply chain will be affected by Covid-related disruptions. Respondents included those in the Food, Beverage and Tobacco sector.

The report also investigates impacts to lead times, manufacturing capabilities, inventory and others.

Read ISM's news story here.

US Department of Agriculture has published a proposed rule, aiming to close the "gaps in the current regulations to build consistent certification practices to deter and detect organic fraud."

Part of the proposal will aim to reduce businesses exempted from organic certification. improving traceability with better recordkeeping, and standardizing inspections of organic operation sites.

Read more on the proposed rule in the Food Navigator story.

A Dutch meat trader who was sentenced in France for his role in a 2013 scam that passed off horse meat as beef to food producers across Europe has been arrested by Spanish authorities.

The man, Johannes Fasen, was sentenced in April to two years in prison for his part in the 2013 horsemeat scandal, along with three of his partners in the plot to deceive a French company and consumers by selling 500 tonnes of cheap horse meat as beef.

Read the full story here.

Researchers at the Institute for Global Food Security and Young's Seafood have published comprehensive research on the subject of the seafood supply chain and the points where fraud can occur. The research reveals opportunities for fruad by mapping the supply chains of finfish, shellfish and crustaceans in the UK, and looks at many factors, including species substitution and adulteration, chain of custody abuse, modern day slavery and catch method fraud, among others.

The entire paper is available on open access here.

Just days after its IPO, eCommerce site Pinduoduo has been investigated by the China's State Administation for Market Regulation (SAMR) after reports that counterfeit products were being sold on the site, such infant milk powder.

SAMR recommended that Pinduoduo take extra precautionary steps to make sure the products listed on the site follow regulations, which Pinduoduo CEO Huang Zheng pledged to do. 

Read the full story here.

The new guidance from the U.S. Food and Drug Administration aims to help food businesses understand and comply with the new Intentional Adulteration Rule, which comes into effect in July 2019. The IA Rule requires businesses to implement strategies to reduce the risk of intentional adulteration at food facilities that are particularly vulnerable.

The 94-page draft guidance, which is the first of three installments, includes chapters on the Food Defense Plan, vulnerability assessment, and mitigation strategies. The other installments will be released later in the year.

Read the full guidance here.

Under the Horizon Europe programme, which focuses on the future funding of food and agriculture research by the European Commission, investment in food research and innovation will see an increase. The Commission has earmarked €10 billion for the food sector, with an emphasis on food safety, which has €1.68 billion confirmed. This embraces quite a wide area of research which could include the safety issues arising out of food fraud.

Read more about the programme on FoodNavigator.

Imprint Analytics GmbH have published a paper in the Journal of Food Science and Technology on the analysis of coconut waters for authenticity testing. Coconut water is becoming more prevalent as a healthy, low carb alternative to other beverages and is defined as a juice by the European Fruit Juice Association (AIJN).

The study analysed 30 authentic coconut waters, that were extracted from coconuts in the lab, and 24 commercial coconut waters purchased from shops to investigate the detection of added C-4 plant sugars to the drinks.

Find the study here.

Researchers in Ireland have published a paper which discusses current and evolving techniques to determine geographical origins of meat. The paper explores applications of meat authenticity techniques including spectrscopy, stable isotope ratio analysis, and the measurement of compounds derived from the animals' diets. The authors also discuss challenges in interpretation of the data.

Read the abstract here.

Agroscope have collaborated with SwissDeCode on a test to determine the authenticity of bacterial cultures in cheese. The mobile test kit, developed with funding from Swiss Food Research, are able to extract and identify two bacterial strains at room temperature. In the past, samples that were deemed suspicious were sent to BerneLiebefeld lab for analysis, which typically took somewhere between 1 to 2 weeks for a response. The new kit produces results in less than one hour.

Read the entire story here, or for the original story in German and French, read here.

Prosecco, a product with protected designation of origin, is produced in only nine areas near the Italian cities of Venice and Trieste. Last month, FSA investigators siezed a shipment of thousands of bottles which were labelled as 'Prosecco', but were actually sparkling wine produced in Moldova. 

Read more about the story here.