News

This publication (open access) describes the launch of FISH-FIT.  FISH-FIT is a biobank of seafood species samples which are linked to an authentic database of morphology, genetic information, and other physical characteristics. It also contains a library of PCR analytical methods.   It was developed under an EU-funded project and free access is currently only available to EU regulatory bodies, although wider access is planned.  The databank is hosted by the Max Ruber Institute.

FISH-FIT has been added to FAN’s index of authenticity reference databases, a useful search tool for existing databanks or commercial testing services..

(image from the paper)

The UK National Meaurement Laboratory (NML) at LGC has shared a case study on a groundbreaking method for DNA meat species quantitation. This method, funded by the Food Standards Agency (FSA) and Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (Defra), has now been officially published as a European standard (EN 18033:2024) by the European Committee for Standardisation (CEN).

Released in January 2025, this is the first harmonised standard for the relative quantitation of horse DNA in food samples and was initiated following the 2013 horse meat incident which challenged consumer confidence in the quality and authenticity of the food they were buying. The standard provides business operators, regulators, and compliance authorities with a robust and repeatable approach for determining the level of meat adulteration in raw beef products.

This milestone represents a significant advancement in food authenticity and food fraud prevention testing, ensuring greater transparency and trust in the food industry.

Read more about this case study.

This study (open access) used the fingerprint of trace elements (measured by inductively-coupled plasma – mass spectrometry, ICP-MS) as a marker for the use of mineral vs organic fertilisers, and hence as a marker for the mislabelling of Organic apple juice.  The concept was proven on juices made from apples grown in two regions of Northern Germany.

Reference data sets were generated from juices made by the researchers from apples of known provenance.  59 apple juice samples (31 organic and 28 conventional) from four crop years (2020–2023) were analyzed regarding their element profiles and used for model creation. All samples were from Schleswig-Holstein, Germany. Afterwards, the model was expanded using 24 apple juice samples (11 organic and 13 conventional) from Hamburg, Germany (crop year 2020–2023). Prior to analysis, the whole apple samples were washed with deionized water and then dried. Afterwards, the samples were processed to apple juice using a commercial juice extractor.

The authors report that, using an environment-friendly sample preparation strategy and a ratio-based evaluation approach in combination with a random forest classification model, it was possible to distinguish between the cultivation methods of processed apples.  The results were verified by analyzing samples from local supermarkets. Furthermore, the detection of adulterated mixtures of conventional juice to organic juice was studied using a regression analysis (5–50 % adulteration). Adulteration could reliably be detected from a proportion of 20 % Thus, falsification of the cultivation method can be detected even in mixtures.

The authors conclude that the study shows great potential towards sustainability, reducing sample preparation time, hazardous chemicals and energy consumption.  The identified molybdenum as a potential routine marker for organic apple juice.

Authentication of mushroom commodities often relies on visual identification, including microscopy. The methods usually involve physical observation with high subjectivity, which may lead to mushroom-product fraud and mislabelling.

This review (purchase required) covers molecular methods and “chemical” methods coupled with chemometrics and/or artificial intelligence. These include DNA barcoding, which is an identification strategy based on the DNA sequence of the mushroom sample, specifically the internal transcribed spacer (ITS) region. The review discusses the advancements in the usage of both DNA barcoding and chemometrics-coupled methods in the authentication of mushrooms and their derivative products; and how these can solve some major hurdles relating to mushroom products.

Photo by Damir Omerović on Unsplash

This study (purchase required) reports a direct method to verify the purity and authenticity of commercial sweetener raw materials; erythritol, xylitol, and stevia.  Analysis is by near- and mid-infrared spectroscopy combined with a DD-SIMCA classification model. The model was enhanced with virtual samples created by adding PCA residuals and noise.  The authors report that this improved the model's robustness and accuracy. Validation was performed using independent sample sets, including commercial natural sweeteners and in-house samples adulterated with saccharin, sucrose, acesulfame, and silicon dioxide.

The authors conclude that the approach was efficient for xylitol and erythritol authentication.  Efficiency rates were 90 % or higher for xylitol, erythritol, and stevia, but stevia sampling is challenging due to stevia's variable composition and needs improvement before the model could be applied with confidence.

Photo by rama purnama on Unsplash

In recent years the responsibility for enforcing food sustainability claims in the Netherlands has been unclear.  It has now been agreed that the Authority for Consumers and Markets (ACM) will take the lead, but will consult the Netherlands Food and Consumer Product Safety Authority (NVWA) before taking action.  Both are designated as Competent Authorities.

The ACM has announced a focus on sustainability claims in the food sector in 2025.  It has recently run successful similar campaigns in the energy and clothing sectors.  The ACM does not have the power to directly impose fines, but previous warnings to companies making unsubstantiated claims (including major brands such as H&M and Greenchoice) have resulted in changes to packaging, advertising, and substantial corporate donations to sustainability charities in lieu of a fine.

The ACM’s sustainability claims guidelines can be found here.

In this study (open access) the authors made a reference dataset of comminuted meat mixtures by dicing and mixing 140 commercially-purchased steaks of beef, duck and chicken.  They built a classification model to discriminate between the three species in the mixtures.

They used a hand-held Hyperspectral Imaging (HSI) (with a Raspberry Pi controller, which has real-time image acquisition and processing covering  a spectral range from 400 nm to 800 nm) to develop a discrimination model for chicken/duck adulteration in diced beef. The portable push broom HSI was designed with the spectral resolution of 5 nm and spatial resolution of 0.1 mm. To improve generalization, a model transfer method was also developed to achieve model sharing across instruments

The authors report that their model transfer method can effectively correct the spectral differences due to instrument variation and improve the robustness of the model. The support vector machine (SVM) classifier combined with spectral space transformation (SST) achieved a best accuracy of 94.91%. Additionally, a visualization map was proposed to provide the distribution of meat adulteration.

They conclude that the portable HSI enables on-site analysis, making it an invaluable tool for various industries, including food safety and quality control.

There is an increasing market of mildly processed chilled Not-From-Concentrate (NFC) orange juices, preserved by methods such as high pressure processing (HPP) and pulsed electric fields (PEF).

To protect consumers from food fraud, analytical methods to differentiate such juices from thermally pasteurized juices are required.

This paper (open access) sought to identify volatile chemical markers specific to the preservation process.  To screen for appropriate candidate markers, the authors applied a complementary non-targeted volatilomics and sensomics approach.  This identified 58 candidate markers, among which 20 were quantitated and nine were statistically confirmed.

Extension of the quantitations to stored and doubly-treated juices finally resulted in the identification of (S)-carvone and vanillin as promising candidate markers. In combination, the two compounds could distinguish the HPP-treated juice from thermally treated juices and could even identify an HPP-treated juice that had received an additional thermal pasteurization.

Photo by ABHISHEK HAJARE on Unsplash

The authors of this study (purchase required) report that they systematically separated and authenticated the triacylglycerols composition of milks from holstein cattle, goats, mongolian horses, bactrian camels, yaks and buffaloes,  using supercritical fluid chromatography coupled to high-resolution mass spectrometry (SFC-Q-TOF-MS). Subsequently, the fingerprinting of triacylglycerols from different livestock milks was modelled using chemometric methods. The results showed that the statistical grouping of different livestock milks was consistent with the species taxonomy, and the accuracy of internal as well as external validation was satisfactory.

They conclude that this work not only provides an innovative strategy for authentic traceability of livestock milk, but also offers potential for the establishment of nutritional databases.

Photo by Polina Kuzovkova on Unsplash

This paper (open access) reports the construction of a classification model to detect the adulteration of white pepper with mung bean flour utilizing Fourier Transform Infrared (FTIR) spectroscopy combined with chemometric techniques.

The authors prepared their own reference samples in-house by grinding locally sourced white pepper (Malaysian origin) with bean flour ranging from 3 – 50%.

They report that adulterants can be detected even at the lowest concentration prepared using the Partial Least Squares (PLS) method and chemometrics.. The second derivative FTIR spectrum in the range of 3712-650 cm⁻¹ was identified as the optimal calibration model.  The PLS Discriminant Analysis (PLS-DA) method also successfully classified pure white pepper samples from those adulterated with various concentrations of mung bean flour.

This study (purchase required) reports the development of a novel recombinase aided amplification (RAA) assisted Cas12a assay to authenticate the commercially important Pacific oyster.

The COI gene was selected as a genetic marker for primer design. The authors report that the developed species-specific RAA assay was optimal at 40 °C for 25 min. The Cas12a assay successfully detected the target Pacific oyster DNA sequence in RAA products using 0.05 μM gRNA and 0.05 μM Cas12a enzyme within 40 min at 37 °C. The developed RAA primers and gRNA for CRISPR-Cas12a assay showed no cross-amplification and high specificity for C. gigas compared with C. belcheri and C. iridalei. The sensitivity test showed the ability of the assay to detect DNA concentrations as low as 10 fg/reaction. In addition, the developed assay successfully authenticated oyster samples in all processed forms, including boiled, steamed, fried, and canned samples.

A small follow-up survey found that 1 of the 15 commercial samples tested was mislabeled.

The authors conclude that the developed assay was a valuable technique with high potential for food safety authorities and stakeholders in ensuring authenticity, in which substitution and adulteration of seafood products can be detected.

This study (open access) applies both the Situational Crime Prevention (SCP) framework and the Enterprise Model to the Norwegian cod fishing industry.  It makes consequential recommendations for improving fraud prevention.  Although the SCP model has been used previously in Norway, the authors discuss whether previously adopted strategies adequately address the enterprise conditions that facilitate or drive unreported fishing.  They aim to provide new insights that can be used to reduce fisheries crime in particular and contribute to the understanding and analysis of food crime prevention in general.

The prevention frameworks and models used in this study focus on opportunities.  Five general prevention strategies are considered: increase the risk of detection, increase the effort, reduce the rewards, reduce provocations, and remove excuses. SCP focuses on the decision-making process of the offender, based on the principle that all crimes involve costs and benefits and that the decisions depend on these.

The authors analyse how the current prevention mechanisms in Norwegian fisheries address the enterprise environment that affects industry actors’ behaviour and misreporting practices by applying an integrated framework of combining the enterprise model with SCP.. They discuss why the existing prevention strategies are (in)sufficient for preventing unreported fishing.

The study shows that existing prevention mechanisms mainly address supply and regulation dimensions. Despite their significant role in driving and facilitating unreported fishing, less emphasis is given to market and competition. The analysis reveals the limitations of the heavy reliance of the current prevention strategy on fisheries resource control, as many of the motivating conditions are outside the realm of the control authorities.

The authors recommend that the authorities should expand the perspective to encompass contextual challenges such as competitive conditions and low profitability.

They conclude that the framework proves helpful for analysing fisheries crime prevention, offering insights into addressing food fraud in legitimate supply chains, but the analysis would have benefited from a more apparent distinction between the different conditions that influence criminal behaviour.

Photo by Fredrik Öhlander on Unsplash

In this paper (open access) the authors developed and validated a novel sample introduction mechanism (a new configuration of Solution Glow Cathode Discharge, SGCD) to enable heated and diluted honey to be directly analysed by Optical Emission Spectroscopy (OES).  This provided a relatively low-cost and bespoke platform for the routine testing of trace metals in honey.

They measured the concentrations of five metals – Na, K, Rb, Mg and Ca – in a reference set of authentic honeys and honeys adulterated with syrups.  The paper concentrates more on the analytical technique validation than the reference database and so it is unclear how all the reference samples were sourced and prepared, and two reference results were removed from the dataset as unexplained outliers.  Nonetheless, the authors present multivariate statistics showing that the metal profile can be used as an indicator of adulteration, with syrup-adulterated honey having higher Na content and “natural” honeys having higher K, Mg and Ca content.

This could form the basis of another classification technique which, whilst being a long way from definitive, could add to that analytical arsenal in a weight-of-evidence approach to determining honey authenticity.

The Joint Research Centre of the European Commission have published their monthly collation of food fraud reports for February 2025 here Thanks again to FAN member Bruno Sechet who has turned these into an infographic.  The original infographic, along with his commentary, is on Bruno's LinkedIn feed.

These collations are based on global media reports, and so give a different picture to EU official "suspicions" (as analysed in our recent blog), which is different again to annual collations of official reports as aggregated in our annual summaries.  It is important, when conducting your own risk assessments, to appreciate what a specific data source includes and what it does not.  It is helpful to look at multiple, complementary, data sources.

Fluorescence spectroscopy utilizing benchtop and portable spectrometers with light-emitting diodes (LEDs) as a fixed excitation source has been used as a method for detecting food adulteration in various products, including honey, extra virgin olive oil, tea, and coffee  It is cost-effective, rapid, and sensitive, allowing for intact measurement. LED-based fluorescence spectroscopy is fast, accurate, and cheaper than using a laser.. Recent advancements in semiconductor technology have enabled the delivery of LEDs with commercially available wavelengths ranging from 370 to 470 nm, exhibiting significant light intensity.

In this paper (purchase required), the authors used the technique to develop a classification model to detect ground soy in ground-roasted Arabica coffee, and to differentiate Robusta and Liberica varieties.  The abstract gives no details of the reference samples used to construct or validate the model but it was limited to 2024 season samples harvested in Indonesia.

Photo by Nathan Dumlao on Unsplash

The EC Monthly Reports of Agri-Food Fraud Suspicions reports are a useful tool for estimating fraud incidents, signposted on FAN’s Reports page.  The February 2025 report can be found here.

As with all incident collation reports, interpretation must be drawn with care.  The EC collation is drawn from the iRASSF system – these are not confirmed as fraud, and the root cause of each issue is usually not public.  There are important differences in the data sources, and thus the interpretation that can be drawn, of these data compared to other incident collations.  For example:

• JRC Monthly Food Fraud Summaries (which underpin the infographics produced monthly by FAN member Bruno Sechet) - these are unverified media reports, rather than official reports, but hugely valuable in giving an idea of which way the fraud winds are blowing
• Official reports (as collated from commercial databases such as Fera Horizonscan or Merieux Safety Hud, which underpin FAN's annual Most Adulterated Foods aggregation) - these are fewer in number and give a much more conservative estimate of fraud incidence, and may miss some aspects which have not been officially reported
• Verified reports (where the root cause has been scrutinised and interpreted by a human analyst, for example the FoodChainID commercial database) - these are also few in number, less suitable for drawing overall trends, but give specific insight and information.

If looking at trends over time, you must also be wary of step-changes due to new data sources.  For example, Turkey's public "name-and-shame" database of foods subject to local authority sanctions went online in January 2025 and has had a big impact on the data captured by all commercial incident databases.

In FAN’s graphical analysis of the Agri-Food Fraud Suspicions, shown here, we have excluded cases which appear to be unauthorised sale but no intent to mislead consumers of the content/ingredients of a food pack (e.g. unapproved food additives, novel foods), excluded unauthorised health claims on supplements, and we have excluded residues and contaminants above legal limits.  Our analysis is subjective but intended to give a high-level overview.

We have grouped the remaining cases into crude categories.  It can be seen that the majority are either unregistered trade (e.g. illegal import, or unlicenced premises), falsified certification or traceability records, or substandard meat quality/content in processed foods (what used to be termed “QUID”).  It can be useful to compare a series of consecutive months to see if there is any evidence for materialisation of frauds flagged as risks by supply-and-demand pressures (e.g. the recent increase in cocoa prices).  So far, we only have two months of analysis but we will continue to publish these trends over the year..

In this paper (purchase required) the authors developed an LC-MSMS method to identify and quantify fourteen illegal dyes in chili products, including chili powder, chili sauce, chili flavour, and snacks. They validated the method following the guidelines of CIR EU 2021/808 (the prescriptive requirements for methods for veterinary drug residues in animal products) at four concentration levels ranging from 5 to 70 µg/kg,. The method's applicability was further confirmed through successful proficiency testing (PT) participation.

An analysis of 2350 samples purchased on the Egyptian market over four years revealed that 18.62 % of chili powders, 14.05 % of sauces, 12.87 % of flavorus, and 11.32 % of snacks contained illegal dyes. Sudan IV and Red B were the most frequently found dyes in chili powders (15.86 % each), while Sudan I was the most common in sauces (13.72 %), flavours (12.54 %), and snacks (9.36 %).

Photo by Min Ling on Unsplash

The final report has been published from the German “DIGICHECK” project, which aims to strengthen and verify Organic traceability by utilising Internet-of-Things sensors and digital traceability systems.

The project aimed to achieve

1. The digital collection of real-time land, yield and certification data (from certifiers) and product transaction data (from companies of trading, processing, etc.) as well as the linking of this data as information for authorised users;
2. the calculation of mass balances along product chains calculated from land, income and transactions;
3. the use and linking of geographical information systems (GIS) and data collected by sensors to the certification data in order to provide control bodies with additional tools for their control activities, including independently of an on-the-spot visit;
4. the optimisation of control activities and quality assurance measures along the cereal product chain through the exchange of information between the operators involved;
5. clarifying which instruments and measures are permitted under the EU Organic Regulation and the German Organic Farming Act and could be implemented as required;
6. the evaluation of which tools can be usefully used by control authorities and which information should be made available in the event of fraud or monitoring;
7. the evaluation of the extent to which data can be evaluated for statistical purposes.

This review (open access) presents a comprehensive summary of the principles and recent advancements in the application of stable isotope techniques for authenticity assessment. It examines their use in detecting fraud (e.g., identifying edible alcohol, exogenous water, carbonylation, and trace compounds), vintage identification, and geographical origin determination across various alcoholic beverages, with a particular focus on wine, Chinese baijiu, and beer.   It cites over 100 publications from the past 15 years.

The authors conclude that stable isotope analysis is a powerful tool for verifying the authenticity of alcoholic beverages, offering effective solutions to combat counterfeiting, mislabeling, and adulteration. They recommend that future studies should focus on understanding the ecological, biological, and hydrometeorological factors influencing isotope signatures and develop advanced multi-isotope and chemometric approaches to improve reliability. Expanding global databases and integrating emerging technologies such as artificial intelligence (AI) and machine learning will further enhance the effectiveness and accessibility of stable isotope techniques, ensuring safer and higher-quality alcoholic beverages for consumers worldwide.

Photo by Ibrahim Boran on Unsplash

Tenet Law are a FAN partner.  They have kindly provided this best-practice guide to protect your business against Cyber Crime.  You can find out more at Tenet's website.

Cyber Risk: Who’s Really Prepared?

Cyber threats are evolving rapidly, yet many organisations remain unprepared for the risks they face and uncertain about how to respond in the event of an incident. No organisation is immune to the risks, making proactive cybersecurity measures essential.

From safeguarding sensitive data to managing third-party risks and responding to ransomware attacks, businesses must first identify vulnerabilities and gaps in their systems and processes.

Adding to the challenge, regulatory requirements impose additional complexity on our already demanding roles. Ensuring compliance and managing policies, procedures, and vendor relationships are crucial.

This article offers practical advice and strategies, helping organisations to feel confident in their approach, emphasising the importance of everyone in the business supporting and building resilience against cybercrime.

Large Organisations Vs Small Organisations

• Large firms invest heavily in cybersecurity due to greater risks and assets, but their systems are complex and harder to patch.
• Smaller firms may assume they are not targets or rely on outdated practices, making them vulnerable.
• Businesses of all sizes should conduct regular audits, training and software updates to avoid vulnerabilities in legacy systems and to comply with the latest regulation.
• At a minimum, carry out a basic cyber hygiene check annually to review software updates, access controls and incident response plans.
• Many businesses treat certifications like Cyber Essentials as a tick-box exercise, but these basic measures do not stop advanced cyber threats.
• The best security tools can be expensive, making them inaccessible for small businesses.
• ISO 27001 is the international standard for information security, requiring organisations to:
  • Identify security risks.
  • Select appropriate controls to mitigate risks.
  • Establish an internal process to handle incidents.

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Protecting Data & Third-Party Risks

• Fraudsters often target smaller vendors to gain access to bigger companies.
• Vendor risk assessments are essential—ask suppliers about their cybersecurity controls before sharing data.
• Review supplier contracts for security clauses and require them to meet cybersecurity best practices.
• Monitor third-party access—limit vendor access to only what they need, for the time they need it.
• Effective cybersecurity is about setting clear parameters—knowing what data is coming in, what is going out, identifying risks and defining actions to take when threats arise.
• Ensure your staff know how to escalate an incident to the appropriate person or team to determine whether a breach has occurred.

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Strengthening Defences

• Many businesses avoid cybersecurity because it feels too technical.
• Asking "Why do we do it this way?" can reveal security gaps.
• Get the Board interested by asking “What happens if we lose access to X system for 24 hours?”
• Cyber risk is now treated like health and safety—it’s no longer optional.
• Many businesses assume, “It won’t happen to us,” leading to poor preparation and rushed decisions during an attack.
• Have an incident response plan that includes:
  • Who is involved (internal/external)?
  • What steps must be followed?
  • Who makes key decisions?
  • How are systems restored and regulators informed?
• Be open and honest about breaches—notify affected parties promptly and follow legal reporting obligations (e.g., GDPR’s 72-hour rule).
• Transparency is key - I can recover from the truth I can’t recover from a lie!

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Real and Relevant Cyber Threats

• The cybersecurity industry often spreads fear rather than offering practical solutions.
• Many businesses struggle to identify which threats are real and relevant.
• Instead of overwhelming staff with too many security policies, focus on keeping it simple.
  • Protect your perimeter (firewalls, network monitoring).
  • Control what goes in and out (limit USB drives, monitor email attachments, downloads).
  • Training and education (unusual payment requests, phishing emails, passwords).
• AI tools create new risks, such as data leaks, deepfake scams and employees sharing confidential information with AI chatbots.
• Educate staff on AI risks and set clear guidelines on what can/cannot be shared.
• Many breaches occur because employees don’t report suspicious activity due to fear of blame.
• Build a non-blame reporting culture where employees feel safe reporting potential security issues.

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Ransomware Dilemmas

• Many companies quietly pay ransoms instead of reporting breaches.
• The government is moving toward banning ransomware payments for critical infrastructure sectors.
• NEVER pay a ransom—it does not guarantee data return and invites further attacks.
• Have offline backups to restore data if ransomware locks your systems.
• Some industries must report cyber incidents (e.g., financial firms under DORA regulations) and more mandatory breach disclosure laws may follow.
• Keep an action log—document every step of your cyber response (who was notified, what actions were taken) for legal and compliance purposes.
• Stay informed about new cyber security laws (e.g. the UK’s upcoming "King’s Resilience Bill").

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Preparing for a Cyber Attack

• The best way to prepare is to practice before it happens.
• Run a cyber attack simulation using real-life threats:
  • A fake invoice email with malware.
  • A ransomware attack locking business files.
  • A data breach where customer information is stolen.
  • An employee clicking on a phishing link.
• Measure response time, decision-making and gaps in your plan.

To understand more about Cybercrime watch the latest ‘At the Coalface’ webinar back on YouTube. Tenet’s Arun Chauhan - an accomplished lawyer specialising in fraud investigations and disputes, is joined by leading cyber security expert and consultant Adrian Jolly. Together, they cut through the noise and have an unfiltered conversation about cyber risk, what businesses are getting right, what they’re getting wrong, and how to stay resilient against evolving threats. Click here:

Tenet are a multi-award winning law firm specialising in complex fraud disputes, investigations and financial crime compliance. Our experience and sole focus is our expertise of dealing with a range of financial crime and fraud issues and applying that detailed and experienced knowledge to certain sectors, including food. For more information on how you can better prevent or investigate fraud within your business visit our website or sign up to receive articles, events and insights straight to your inbox