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This guide is being developed by the Codex Alimentatius Committee on Food Import Inspection and Food Export Certification Systems (CCFICS).  The draft is in 8 sections: (Preamble; Scope/Purpose; Definitions; Types of food fraud; Principles; Roles and Responsibilities of Competent Authorities and Food Business Operators; Relevant Activities for Competent Authorities; and Cooperation, Collaboration, and exchange of Information Between Competent Authorities). It includes working definitions of food fraud, food integrity and food authenticity, noting that they are not yet approved. 

The document has been drafted by an Electronic Working Group (EWG), led by the US, with China, EU, Iran, Panama, and the UK.  Selvarani Elahi, FAN's Executive Director, was UK co-chair for the ealier drafts and FAN have also fed into Codex discussions on fraud definitions.  The draft was brought back to the 27^th meeting of CCFICS, held in Cairns, Australia, in September.  It is now ready to go to the next Codex plenary meeting on 25^th November, before returning to another EWG for resulting edits then back to the 28^th meeting of CCFICS next year.

The 27^th CCFICS also discussed other standards and guidelines relevant to food fraud prevention, including modernising the Codex principles on traceability and product tracing (CXG60), digitisation of national food control systems, and new work on principles and guidelines to harmonize the use, development and implementation of (food-producing) establishment listing

A full report of the meeting can be found here, including contact details for each country’s representative on the committee.  The draft Food Fraud Prevention guide is included as Appendix II.

Photo by Nathan Cima on Unsplash

A new article has been published that assessed MedISys-FF system (publicly  available) for its suitable as an early warning tool for food fraud.

The study, we analyzed food fraud cases collected by MedISys-FF over a 6-year period (2015–2020) and showed global trends and developments in food fraud activities. In the period investigated, the system collected 4375 articles on food fraud incidents from 164 countries in 41 different languages.

Fraud with meat and meat products were most frequently reported (27.7%), followed by milk and milk products (10.5%), cereal and bakery products (8.3%), and fish and fish products (7.7%).

Most of the fraud was related to expiration date (58.3%) followed by tampering (22.2%) and mislabeling of country of origin (11.4%). Network analysis showed that the focus of the articles was on food products being frauded. The validity of MedISys-FF as an early warning system was demonstrated with COVID-19. The system has collected articles discussing potential food fraud risks due to the COVID-19 crisis.

The paper concludes that MedISys-FF is a very useful tool to detect early trends in food fraud and may be used by all actors in the food system to ensure safe, healthy, and authentic food.

Read the full article: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.foodcont.2022.108961

MedISys-FF (MEDISYS) can be accessed in the 'Tools' section of the Food Authenticity Network.

safefood's role is to promote awareness and knowledge of food safety and nutrition on the island of Ireland. To do this safefood:

• Provide healthy eating and food safety advice to the public
• Carry out research into food safety
• Promote scientific co-operation and links between laboratories
• Provide independent assessment of the food supply
• Carry out surveillance of diet-related disease.

safefood has produced a guide for food manufacturing businesses to help protect their businesses from food fraud.

The guide is open access and is available at Protect your business from food fraud | safefood

The Food Authenticity Network Team is delighted to note that the Food Authenticity Network is cited as one of the resources!

The safefood guide has also been placed in the 'Guidance tab' of the 'Tools and Guides section' of the Food Fraud Prevention part of this website.

A paper has been published, which reviews eight major #foodfraud #incidents and developed a framework to recognise the stages and nuances of a food-fraud 'scandal' narrative.

View full paper.