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.
KEY FINDINGS
1 Despite vital emergency measures in place, more people are food insecure now than before the pandemic.
• Pre-pandemic, we saw a rising trend in levels of household
food insecurity. But Covid-19 has left more people than
before struggling to afford or access a nutritious diet.
Emergency interventions appear to have prevented the
situation from worsening in recent months but turning off
the tap of support risks seeing elevated levels of hunger
and deprivation becoming the new normal.
• Despite community and voluntary sector groups heroically
stepping in to help millions of vulnerable people, our
evidence shows too many food insecure households have
struggled to access support. Reliance on overstretched
food banks and food aid charities is not a sustainable
safety net for individuals and families who can't afford a
decent diet.
2 Households with children have been hit hard, with many
children still falling through the cracks in support.
• Households with children have consistently found it harder to put food on the table, particularly lone parents, large families, and low-income families. Recently, slight improvements in levels of moderate/severe food insecurity among households with children suggest targeted policy interventions have mitigated a significant deterioration. But children reporting experiences of mild to severe food insecurity had not improved this January (2021) compared to six months ago.
• Free School Meal vouchers have represented a vital lifeline for eligible children and their families during Covid, but a series of issues with provision during school closure left many eligible children unable to rely on a regular, quality meal. Many children not currently eligible for Free School Meals face the daily stress of not knowing where their next meal comes from. An increased number of children reported they or their families visited a food bank
this Christmas compared to during the summer holidays.
3 Existing support schemes have made a difference, but gaps have meant many people still struggle to eat adequately.
• Covid-19 has deepened the financial hardship faced by lowincome households and has also created a newly vulnerable group who were financially stable pre-Covid. Households are balancing on a financial tightrope, increasing debt and using up savings to survive. With household budgets on a shoestring, the end of the Furlough Scheme and the proposed cut to the £20 uplift to Universal Credit can only increase the challenges faced by individuals and families already struggling to pay their food bills.
4 Covid-19 has dramatically widened inequalities in food security and nutrition.
• Exposure to food insecurity is not equal across all households. Throughout the crisis, BAME communities have consistently encountered disproportionately higher levels of food insecurity compared with white ethnic groups. Comparing our data to before the pandemic, inequality in food insecurity has widened between those from BAME backgrounds and white ethnic groups.
• Adults with disabilities have also consistently been more acutely affected by food insecurity during the pandemic compared with those without disabilities. Our most recent data show people with severe disabilities have five times greater levels of food insecurity than those without.
• Despite undertaking essential work like stocking our grocery shelves, food sector workers have reported much higher levels of food insecurity than the general population.
Read full report.
Purpose of assessment
This assessment is intended to support the FSA in understanding changes in the food system related to the COVID-19 pandemic, as they relate to the FSA mission. It is limited in scope to understanding the implications for the work of the FSA and so does not consider the wider societal impacts. It builds on key findings from existing research and analysis undertaken throughout the period of the pandemic.
Key Judgements
1. Behaviour changes brought about by COVID-19 restrictions and health practices are likely to have led to a temporary drop in the incidence of some food borne diseases (para 1).
2. The adoption of an increasing range of online platforms by consumers and food businesses during the pandemic will almost certainly remain and present challenges to food regulation and its enforcement (paras 2-4).
3. It is highly likely that people’s lives when it comes to food have become increasingly varied and will continue to present a more diverse risk environment for the FSA to deal with after the pandemic. This is particularly driven by the longterm trend towards increasing food insecurity (exacerbated by COVID-19) and the underlying economic divergence (paras 5-12).
4. There is almost certainly an increased appetite for government intervention to ensure food safety and availability. This is not universal, but experiences during the pandemic are likely to have shifted public attitudes, presenting an opportunity for interventions (paras 13-14).
5. Although there is likely to be increased vulnerability to food crime in some consumer groups due to COVID-19 related changes, there is very little evidence of this being exploited (paras 15-17).
6. The response to the pandemic forced a reconfiguration of FSA activities, leading to changes in working practices, and a renewed focus on intelligence and risk led activities (paras 18-21).
Read full board paper.
This study provides a preliminary quantitative and qualitative analysis of the impact of COVID-19 on European agriculture and the agri-food supply chain in light of the responses deployed by the European Union and its Member States to mitigate its effects.
KEY FINDINGS
• Overall, during the pandemic, the EU agri-food supply chain has demonstrated a high degree of resilience. The
value of the output of the agricultural industry declined by 1.4% in 2020 compared to 2019, although, when
compared to the 2015-2019 average, it grew by 2.9%. Nonetheless, sectors highly dependent on the food service
(e.g. wine, beef and veal) have faced major difficulties. Flowers and plants and sugar have also suffered
considerable financial losses.
• The EU response was highly effective in preserving the integrity of the Single market. Conversely, measures
adopted under the Common Agricultural Policy (CAP) had mixed results having been implemented partially or
inconsistently across Member States (MSs).
• The costs of the crisis for the EU agri-food sector will be borne primarily by MSs. National financial support - namely
in the form of State aids (estimated EUR 63.9 billion) and other instruments – has been significantly higher than
EU support (EUR 80 million in private storage aids).
• To better respond to future crises, policy responses should be designed following a ‘food systems approach’.
Moreover, the reasons behind the limited impact of CAP measures during the pandemic should be better
investigated. Consideration should also be given to the decoupling of the CAP crisis reserve from farmers’ direct
payments to reinforce EU financial capacity during crises. Finally, because of the economic consequences of the
pandemic, food assistance programmes for the most deprived are needed.
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:
Food fraud poses a serious threat to the food system. How can we fight against it and be confident that the food we are buying is authentic and safe?
Read full blog, which refers to the Food Authenticity Network as a "great example" of what is being done to mitigate and prevent food fraud.
In June 2020, there was an outbreak of SARS-CoV-2 at a Beijing market. The virus was found on the chopping bords of imported frozen Norwegian salmon, which caused a hasty removal of imported salmon from supermarket shelves. Also, earlier in January, the Chinese authorities reported that coronovirus was found in ice cream made with ingredients from New Zealand (milk powder) and Ukraine (whey powder).
This article discusses whether it is likely or not that the virus can be transmitted along the food chain, especially the cold chain, as now several peer reviewed articles by Chinese researchers claim.
Read the article here
The effects of the COVID-19 pandemic are being felt across the world and it is reasonable to expect that they have the potential to impact on the vulnerability of the global food supply chain to food fraud. Recent reports suggest the potential for increased food fraud in global food supply chains due to the impact of COVID-19.
The Food Authenticity Network (FAN) and Mérieux Nutrisciences have collaborated to undertake a detailed assessment of the data to establish whether food fraud incidents are indeed increasing.
The analysis conducted identified a small increase in official food fraud alerts since the onset of the pandemic (19 more official reports) and a more significant increase in the number of media reports (81 more media reports) in January to June 2020 compared to the same period in 2019).
It is not clear how significant the observed increases are considering the availability of a relatively small number of global official food fraud alerts and the variability in the type of data available from different countries and sources, making it difficult to undertake statistical comparisons.
Following extraordinary meetings of its Advisory Board in May and July 2020, FAN concluded that the conditions created by the pandemic have increased food fraud vulnerability but that there was insufficient evidence of ‘dramatic’ increases in specific COVID-19-related food fraud incidents. This study supports that conclusion. However, it is likely that the true impact of COVID-19 on the incidence of global food fraud will not be known until full resumption of regulatory surveillance world-wide and at this point, it is possible that more evidence concerning pandemic-related factors may emerge.
In the meantime, FAN recommends that due to the heightened vulnerability of food to fraud, the food industry be extra vigilant and use the available existing best practice authenticity control measures and tools (COVID-19 Resource Base) to mitigate any potential emerging threats.
Read full article.
The global disruption caused by COVID‐19 has, and will continue to have, a generic impact on the likelihood of many food fraud risks. It is important that food businesses keep their vulnerability assessments and risk management plans under continual review in light of ‘COVID‐effects’ to assess whether they apply to their own supply chain. These effects are layered onto existing macro‐economic trends, such as the increase in plant‐based foods, direct online sales and supply shortages due to conflict or climatic events.
In this article, John Points and Louise Manning, both members of the IFST's COVID‐19 Advisory Group, assess the evidence for an increase in food fraud as a result of the COVID‐19 pandemic and conclude that:
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.
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.
USDA’s Economic Research Service (ERS) has published its annual International Food Security Assessment, which shows that the worldwide coronavirus pandemic has made food security worse.
The annual report determines how much access people in 76 low and middle-income countries have to food. The answer to that question requires tracking incomes, food prices, and other economic factors including agriculture production and market conditions.
“In the 76 low- and middle-income countries examined in the report, the number of people considered food insecure in 2020 was estimated at almost 761 million people or 19.8 percent of the total population. The shock to GDP from COVID-19 is projected to increase the number of food-insecure people by 83.5 million people in 2020 to 844.5 million and increase the share of the population that is food insecure to 22 percent.”
Read full article.
The effects of the COVID-19 pandemic are being felt across the food supply network.
The Chairman of our Advisory Board, Sterling Crew, has published a paper for the IFST, in which he reviews the potential food authenticity challenges created by the pandemic and the mitigation of the emerging risks and threats.
Many of the risk factors for food fraud have increased across the global food supply network due to the COVID-19 outbreak. Steps taken following the horsemeat incident and the Elliott report have strengthened the UK’s food supply network authenticity controls and helped to mitigate vulnerability to COVID-19 related fraud..Chris Elliott
The pandemic has highlighted some of the weaknesses in the nature and complexity of the global food network. The UK food industry must assure the authenticity of food by continuing to minimise the vulnerability to food fraud , by building resilience to possible future shocks and by mitigation of the emerging authenticity risks and created by COVID-19.
Read full article.
2.The Government should work with producers, processors and wholesalers servicing the hospitality and foodservice sector to monitor the health of food and drink suppliers as supply chains restart.
3.The Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (DEFRA) should continue to provide £5 million in annual funding to FareShare to redistribute surplus food from farms and across the supply chain to frontline food aid providers for a further two years. This would help those who struggle to afford food as the effects of the pandemic continue, and reduce food waste from farms.
4.Food supply to supermarkets continued because we were able to keep food coming into the country. Future crises could stop this flow and cause more serious problems. The Government has to update its food resilience plans, taking into account how consumer behaviour can disrupt food supply and whether our efficient "just-in-time" supply chains are as resilient as they need to be.
Read summary and full report.
Food Standards Scotland (FSS) has issued a Press Release highlighting to food and drink businesses in Scotland to be alert for potential food crime activity in their supply chains, as its Scottish Food Crime and Incidents Unit (SFCIU) is aware, via recent reports, that COVID-19 circumstances has created a factor or motivation for food crime. It is, therefore, advising businesses to remain vigilant about their food supply chains, and recommends they refer to a joint guide, developed with the Chartered Institute of Environmental Health and the Food Standards Agency on improving fraud resilience for food and drink businesses.
Read the FSS Press Release
The FDA (US Food and Drug Administration) is allowing temporary flexibility in food labelling requirements for manufacturers experiencing difficulty sourcing some ingredients during the COVID-19 pandemic. It has published temporary guidance to allow for minor formulation changes without updating labels, in order to help minimise the impact of supply chain disruptions associated with the current COVID-19 pandemic on product availability.
Read the article here
The Covid-19 outbreak has caused problems in certain sectors of the food supply chain, for example in meat processing plants, air freight of fresh produce. It means that many food manufacturers are struggling to obtain the all the ingredients in a global food chain for their food products. It also means that the shorter the food chain the less risk there is, and local supply chains are benefitting from this situation.
Read the article here
COVID-19 is disrupting food systems globally and governments must stabilise food supply chains and thoughtfully expand social safety nets now to avert social unrest. Lessons learned from the 2008–2012 food price crises globally, which caused riots in 50 countries, point to seven actionable points to consider.
Read the full article
The guidance for food business operators and their employees is aimed to assist all food businesses in following government guidance on infection prevention and control measures against COVID-19.
Scottish Government requirements to close restaurants, cafes and public houses to prevent the spread of COVID-19 has led many of these businesses to offer new take-away or delivery services to their customers. The closure of many catering businesses has also resulted in increased demand for existing take-away businesses. In recognition of the challenges faced by small businesses in the food take-away sector we have produced a practical guide to help them communicate consistently to their customers, including model notices that can be used to maintain social distancing requirements at their premises.
The guidance is being continually reviewed and will be updated to reflect developments so please refer to the FSS website for their latest advice.
Research undertaken by Crowe UK, KYND and University of Portsmouth’s Centre for Counter Fraud Studies found that the vast majority of the top 200 AIM businesses have significant unaddressed cyber risks. Unfortunately, the risks identified are not just limited to the top 200 AIM businesses and are also likely to exist in similar companies.
The cyber landscape is becoming increasingly complex, particularly now we're seeing increased strain from fraud and cybercrime pressures related to the current COVID-19 pandemic. Fraud and cybercrime is expected to surge over 60% in the coming months. Keeping pace with the evolution of cyber threats is becoming ever more challenging and important. This was evidenced in the report's key findings.
Download the Fraud and cybercrime vulnerabilities on AIM report
