DEFINITIONS

Food fraud, food adulteration, food crime, food integrity, food authenticity and food counterfeiting are all commonly applied terms to a problem that has existed since the commercialisation of food. Defra (Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs), FSA (Food Standards Agenc)y and FSS (Food Standards Scotland) commissioned the Food Authenticity Network, via LGC, to undertake an examination of published literature to identify the major definitions related to food fraud and global standardisation activities in this area (with a focus on terminology and testing methods).

You can read the report here, and has been added to the Research section of the website. 

The information from this project was sent to the following standardisation groups:

  • Working Group 1 (Concepts, terms, and definitions) of CEN Technical Committee 460 (Food Authenticity). This group has now concluded with the publication of standard:  

    BS EN 17972:2024 Food authenticity. Food authenticity and fraud. Concepts, terms and definitions.

  • The Chair of the Codex Committee on Food Import and Export Inspection and Certification Systems (CCFICS) electronic working group on food fraud tasked with producing ‘Guidance on the Prevention and Control of Food Fraud’ for reference.

The most commonly used definitions for food fraud and related terms have been reproduced on this page.

Food Fraud

BS EN 17972:2024 Food authenticity. Food authenticity and fraud. Concepts, terms and definitions

This document provides technical definitions of terms relating to authenticity and fraud when referring to food products.

All terms and definitions are in the context of food supply chains, but most of them can also be applied when referring to feed products and the feed supply chain.

This standard was developed by CEN Technical Committee 460 (Food Authenticity) - The European Committee for Standardization is one of three European Standardization Organizations (together with CENELEC and ETSI) that have been officially recognized by the European Union and by the European Free Trade Association (EFTA) as being responsible for developing and defining voluntary standards at European level.

It can be purchased through national standards bodies like BSI: British Standards Institution - Project

Related Terms

The Elliott Review (Elliott, 2014): “food authenticity is about ensuring that food offered for sale is of the nature, substance, and quality expected by the purchaser”.