This paper (open access) draws on previous cost of crime frameworks to develop a model specifically for food fraud in the UK. The novel features of the model are its use of ‘crime scheme’ as the unit of analysis and the introduction of ‘market cost’, the impact of illicit supplies on the legitimate market. The analysis estimates that the annual economic cost of food fraud in the UK is between £ 0.4 billion and £ 2 billion.
The conclusion of this analysis is that the UK food industry suffers a low rate of fraud relative to other industry sectors. The authors argue that collective action by the food industry has created an overlapping framework of quality controls that squeezes out fraudulent products and creates a significant barrier to entry for unethical businesses and rogue traders.
This estimate chimes with a previous estimate by the Food Standards Agency. These, and other estimates of the global cost of fraud, can be found on the "Cost of Food Crime" tab on our Food Crime page.
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