1. National Food Crime Unit External Review 2022
In June 2018, the Food Standards Agency Board agreed to expand National Food Crime Unit's (NFCU) activities from having a strategic and tactical intelligence capability to a comprehensive response to criminal threats and vulnerabilities, including investigative capabilities. This review of the NFCU ran from June to October 2022. The Review centred on 22 key findings which relate to the themes below:
- The evidenced capability of the Unit to handle intelligence and pursue crime reduction, supported by the professional expertise of its staff, the benefit derived from their existing professional networks within law enforcement and the deep commitment and effort of the Unit’s officers;
- The impact of increasing strategic cohesion between NFCU and the rest of the FSA with regards to the food crime threat;
- The practical challenges of complex fraud investigation, particularly given the absence of key powers, but also the importance of encouraging a more ‘lawfully audacious’ approach;
- The critical contributions of the Unit’s capabilities around sensitive intelligence collection and financial investigation;
- The importance of food-specific domain expertise in understanding and tackling the food crime threat, the external factors which may increase the risk of food crime and the risk that the threat is underestimated by many;
- Areas of potential improvement to service delivery in terms of internal training, intelligence sharing, online investigation tradecraft and the consideration of offender management opportunities.
- The importance of strengthening the Unit’s external influence, relationships and information sharing with the public and private sectors, at home and abroad.
Read the review report.
2. Food Fraud Prevention Strategy - A global perspective on testing, monitoring and verification
This paper, by Dr. John W Spink and reviewed by Selvarani Elahi MBE, provides insight into how the food authenticity-related concepts of testing, monitoring, and verification can be applied effectively within the overall framework of food fraud prevention.
Download the free white paper at: https://okt.to/yk9Ixi
