News

The Food Safety Authority of Ireland (FSAI) 2023 Annual report, published last month, includes a summary of food fraud investigations and outcomes (see p61 onwards).

The FSAI Audits, Incidents and Investigations team conducted 57 investigations and 21 online investigations.  These ranged from warranted searches of premises to the monitoring of social media pages in cases where the online operation of unauthorised food businesses was suspected.  Outcomes included three Closure Orders, two Prohibition Orders and four Compliance Notices. Food safety concerns identified during these investigations necessitated the removal and disposal of more than 141,806 kg of products of animal origin.  The FSAI engaged with online platforms (such as Facebook and Instagram) where illegal food businesses were selling products online. This engagement resulted in two unregistered food businesses’ pages being taken down by the social media sites.

In overview, the report highlights a rise in “complex” food incidents.

This white paper is from the Institute of International and European Affairs, a non-profit charity that is Ireland’s leading international affairs think tank.

The paper tracks the suspicions of honey fraud and subsequent investigations and surveillance monitoring plans over the past decade, leading up to the EU legislation changes in the Breakfast Directive.  The paper makes the case that without this large-scale co-ordinated action and evidence-gathering, the possibility of wide scale fraud might never have been taken sufficiently seriously. It reviews the effectiveness of the current EU regulations and international cooperation efforts that are designed to detect and prevent honey adulteration and asks what technological and legislative improvements can be deployed to protect consumers and support EU honey producers.  It concludes by looking to the future and how honey fraud might be tackled on a local, national, and international level

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.