A Toolkit to Support Weight of Evidence Approaches for Food Authenticity Investigations has been published by Defra.
Applying a weight of evidence approach for food authenticity investigation is relevant in situations where screening tests which do not give a definitive answer are used, for example with non-targeted fingerprinting approaches for food authenticity testing which rely on probability-based interpretation of the data. In these situations, gathering and assessing the weight of evidence can help in drawing a conclusion on the authenticity of a sample/product.
This document provides a structured outline on how to approach a weight of evidence assessment to verify the authenticity of food and drink samples where there is no single confirmatory test result available.
It has been developed by a sub-group of Defra’s Authenticity Methods Working Group (AMWG), drawing on analytical testing, enforcement, and food industry expertise.
Access the Weight of Evidence Toolkit. This report has also been added to the 'Guides' tab of the 'Tools_Guides_reports' part of our Food Fraud Prevention section.