News

The Food Industry Intelligence Network (fiin) was established in 2015 by industry technical leaders, in response to the recommendation of the ‘Elliott Review’ for the industry to create a ‘safe haven’ to collect, collate, analyse and disseminate information and intelligence relating to fraud risks. Fiin now has over 70 industry members, UK-based national and multinational food companies, who contribute their own testing data and insight which can then be anonymised, aggregated, and shared amongst the group.

Fiin has now launched a service to make some of this insight freely available to the wider food industry community, particularly to Small and Medium Enterprises (SMEs) which may have limited in-house technical expertise to mitigate food fraud risks.  The new SME hub requires users to register their details but there are no subsequent fees or restrictions.  Information and resources are listed in a clear and easy-to-navigate manner.

The hub offers

• Fiin's quarterly commodity watch-list - this is based on over 50,000 authenticity tests conducted by fiin's industry members, and so gives a different angle than data in the public domain (such as FAN's "most adulterated foods" collation) which are typically constructed from Official Reports.
•  Food fraud definitions and examples -  clear explanations and real-world illustrations
•  Food fraud prevention guides and training materials -  practical, SME-friendly tools
•  News & events -  updates and events relevant to food fraud
•  Food fraud reporting channels - know where and how to report concerns

All resources are free and tailored specifically to meet the needs of SMEs across the food sector.

We are proud, within FAN, that fiin has been a longstanding and supportive Partner.

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.”