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This 2019 publication, by Food Authenticity Network Advisory Board Member, Dr John Spink, is now free to download. The food fraud prevention update includes a practical recommendation for ‘How to Start?’ and ‘How Much is Enough?’

A practical approach to food fraud prevention was laid out in the Food Fraud Implementation Method (FFIM). This method has been refined over the years and was finally formalized and published in 2019 and is applicable today.

After conducting an incident review and hazard identification, the method includes 10 questions, 2 concepts, 7 steps and 1 decision. (To note, the article had seven questions but over time this was later expanded to ten.)

Photo by Irham Setyaki on Unsplash

The Food Fraud Implementation Method (FFIM): “How to Start”

“10 Questions”: For this first pass, the response is just “yes” or “no.”

1. Have you conducted at least one Food Fraud Vulnerability Assessment (Y/N)
2. Is it written (and can you show it to me now) (Y/N)
3. Have you created a Food Fraud Prevention Strategy (Y/N)
4. Is it written (and can you show it to me now) (Y/N)
5. Can you demonstrate Implementation (Y/N)
6. Do you have Executive Level Sign-off (Y/N)
7. Have you minimally conducted an annual Food Fraud Incident Review (Y/N)
8. Do you have a method to review your incidents and general market incidents (Y/N)
9. Note: Do you address all types of Food Fraud (e.g., adulterant-substances, stolen goods, diversion, intellectual property rights counterfeiting, etc.) (Y/N)
10. Note: Do you address all products from both incoming goods (e.g., ingredients) and outgoing goods (e.g., finished goods) through to the consumer.” (Y/N)

“2 Concepts”:

1. Concept One—Formally and specifically, mention food fraud as a ‘food’ issue (e.g., in a formally approved and published corporate policy handbook)
2. Concept Two—Create an enterprise-wide food fraud prevention plan (e.g., this is the Food Fraud Prevention Strategy, and it is the only link between the food fraud incident assessments and calibration with the risk tolerance assessment to the enterprise-wide system)

“7 Steps”:

1. Convene a Food Fraud Task Force
2. Create an Enterprise-wide Food Fraud Policy/Mission Statement and begin drafting a Food Fraud Prevention Strategy/Plan
3. Conduct the pre-filter Food Fraud Initial Screening (FFIS) (e.g., this is a very high-level vulnerability assessment that covers all products across the entire enterprise. One risk matrix or assessment could meet the objective.)
4. Review additional needs, including additional information or a more detailed Food Fraud Vulnerability Assessment (FFVA) (e.g., in ERM/ COSO terms, this is a “detailed assessment.”)
5. Review-specific Food Fraud vulnerabilities in an enterprise risk map (Enterprise Risk Management)
6. Consider countermeasures and control systems to address the ‘very high’ and ‘high’ vulnerabilities (e.g., it is helpful to provide examples of possible countermeasures or control systems. These examples will help calibrate if there is enough information to make a confident resource-allocation decision.)
7. Propose a Food Fraud Prevention Strategy, including the calibration of the Food Fraud risks on the enterprise risk map (E.g., this should be in a corporate human resources template to facilitate actual resource-allocation decision discussions.)

“1 Decision”:

• Finally, after the FFPS proposal is submitted, the last step is for management to decide on the optimal plan. It is essential to consider that no decision on the new proposal is a decision – no decision is a decision that accepts the status quo. In some situations, the total resources applied to the problem may be reduced.

Enterprise Risk Management: How Much is Enough?

The connection of the Food Fraud Vulnerability Assessment to the enterprise-wide risk assessment leads to a calibration of the problems. The enterprise-wide risk map defines the issues that are above the risk tolerance. The most valuable part of the process is that the same map illustrates when there is “enough” of a risk treatment. Zero risk is not practical and often not even possible.

The FFIM has been added to the 'Guides' tab of FAN's Food Fraud Prevention section.

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.