EU Food Fraud Network has published its report for 2016 which shows that 156 food fraud cases were dealt with (147 food & 9 feed). Of these, the top five commodities that fraud was observed in were:

  1. Meat & meat products (excluding poultry)

  2. Fish & fish products

  3. Fats & oils

  4. Poultry meat & poultry meat products

  5. Milk & milk products

 Mislabelling composition was, by far, the largest violation observed.

Read the full report by the European Commission.

The EU Food Fraud Network

As provided for in Title IV of Regulation (EC) N° 882/2004, where the outcome of official controls on food and feed requires action in more than one Member State, competent authorities in the Member States concerned shall provide each other with administrative assistance. Upon receiving a reasoned request, the requested competent authorities shall ensure that the requesting competent authority is provided with all the necessary information and documents enabling the latter to verify compliance with feed and food law within its jurisdiction. An administrative assistance may also end up with two or more competent authorities participating in a joint inspection.

Liaison bodies are at the very core of the mechanism of administrative assistance. These are designated within a Member State to assist and coordinate communication between competent authorities. The role of liaison bodies is essential for the good functioning of administrative assistance, as each liaison body has the exact understanding of how competences are shared within its Member State, thus allowing the information to swiftly reach its destination.

Empowering liaison bodies with a dedicated tool soon became a necessity. At the beginning, information exchange was carried out through conventional means such as letters, emails and phone calls. However, the horsemeat scandal of 2013 proved the need for a streamlined method of communication. The Rapid Alert System for Food and Feed was the only viable tool for these exchanges, however the horsemeat crisis did not show any profiles of public health risks, thus falling outside the scope of that system. In response to that crisis, the EU Food Fraud Network was set up with the aim of allowing the EU countries to work in accordance with the rules laid down in Articles 36-40 of the Official Controls Regulation (Regulation 882/2004, rules on administrative cooperation and assistance) in matters where the national authorities are confronted with possible intentional violations of food chain law with a cross-border impact.

The EU Food Fraud Network consists of contact points in the EU Member States, in Switzerland, Norway, Iceland and the Commission. The contact points of the EU Food Fraud Network are representatives of the authorities designated by each Member State for the purpose of ensuring cross-border administrative cooperation with their counterparts in the other Member States in matters of suspected intentional and economically motivated violations.

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