Standardisation Initiatives for Food Authenticity

Food laws were among some of the earliest enactments for which records exist, and can be traced back to times of the earliest societies (Lásztity, Petró-Turza and Földesi, 2009).

Governments over many centuries have endeavoured to provide for the safety and wholesomeness of food by legal provisions and appropriate punitive action. The big changes in food production and distribution because of the industrialization and rapid growth of urban population, together with public health problems, resulted in the production of many food laws in industrialized nations during the latter part of the nineteenth century. The early twentieth century saw the creation of a separate branch of food law with the establishment of most of the national standards organisations in Europe.

The need for improved health and food control, as well as a rapidly expanding international food trade stimulated cooperation on an international level. A process of intensive international standardisation was initiated, and which resulted in the establishment of a framework for the International Organization for Standardization (ISO) shortly after World War II.

A brief summary of global standardisation initiatives for food authenticity testing has been compiled here. Standardisation work in progress on terms and definitions can be found on the Definitions page.

National and International Legislation

It is the responsibility of food businesses to provide food that is safe and what it says it is on the label. The labelling of food products is essential to inform consumers what kind of products they are buying. Today, harmonised rules on food labelling, presentation, and advertising, is in the form of national and international legislation, for example (EEC) No 2568/91 for olive oil, which serve to protect consumers and facilitate trade.

The Codex Alimentarius (CAC)

A Joint FAO/WHO Food Standards Program was established in 1962, and a joint subsidiary body was created: the Codex Alimentarius Commission (CAC) the purpose of which is “promoting coordination of all food standards work undertaken by international governmental and nongovernmental organizations” (according to statutes of the CAC) to protect consumer health and promote fair practices in food trade.

According to “Glossary of terms”—published in 1976 by FAO/WHO—food standards may be defined as a body of rules or legislation defining certain criteria, such as composition, appearance, freshness, source, sanitation, maximum bacterial count, purity, and maximum concentration of additives—which food must fulfil to be suitable for distribution or sale. The Codex Alimentarius is a collection of food standards, guidelines and codes of practice adopted by the Codex Alimentarius Commission (CAC). The current 188 CAC members have negotiated science-based recommendations in all areas related to food safety and quality.

Codex food safety texts are also referenced in World Trade Organisation (WTO) trade disputes.

CAC publishes lists of approved test methods. The test methods are proposed by CODEX commodity committees and are subject to approval by the CODEX Committee on Methods of Analysis and Sampling (CCMAS).

The table below summarises the most relevant lists of CODEX approved standards.

Standard number	Title	Date	Comments
STAN 234	Recommended Methods of Analysis and Sampling	1999 (Updated 2014)	Lists methods for many CODEX provisions including authenticity methods for fruit juices
STAN 239	General Methods of Analysis for Food Additives	003	Artificial sweeteners, nitrate/nitrite and sulphites
STAN 231	General Codex Methods for the Detection of Irradiated Foods	2001	Various methods for detection of irradiation
STAN 228	General Methods of Analysis for Contaminants	2001	Approved methods for some general contaminant

Further information about CCMAS, including information about the designation of CODEX recommended methods and translations of the above Standards, can be found on the CCMAS committee home page.

In addition to these general methods of analysis, Codex has published 341 Standards, many of which deal with specific foods. Each of these commodity standards has a section on Methods of Analysis and Sampling, some of which have methods appropriate to the authenticity of the food.

At its 23rd meeting, the Codex Committee on Food Import and Export Inspection and Certification Systems (CCFICS) agreed to form an electronic working group (EWG) to review other Codex texts and to create a definition and scope for Food Fraud/ Food Integrity/ Food Authenticity/ related terms. Creating the EWG is a formal activity for Codex that will initiate a review of how Food Fraud will be incorporated into the formal Codex Alimentarius (world food code). This work is currently in progress, via the EWG, with input from relevant Codex committees (CCEURO, CCMAS as well as a number of the commodity committees).

Non-governmental organisations (NGOs)

International Standards Organisation (ISO)
European Committee for Standardization (CEN)
The British Standards Institution (BSI)
AOAC
International Life Sciences Institute, Europe

ISO is an independent, non-governmental international organisation with a membership of 165 national standards bodies. It brings together experts to share knowledge and develop voluntary, consensus-based, market relevant international standards to support innovation and provide solutions to global measurement challenges. ISO committee ISO/TC 34 - Food products and its subcommittees develop standardised terminology, sampling, methods of test and analysis, product specifications, food and feed safety and quality management and requirements for packaging, storage, and transportation in relation to human and animal foodstuffs, covering the food chain from primary production to consumption, as well as animal and vegetable propagation materials. Specifically, ISO 22000 Food Safety Management systems added a footnote that confirms the scope includes “food fraud” root causes.

There are many published ISO Standards on a whole range of food commodities; many of these are looking at the definition and the specification of the food rather than its authenticity. However, at the time of writing this report (2021), the following Sub-Committees (SC) and Working Groups (WG) are working on the standardisation of methods related to food integrity:
• ISO/TC34/SC16 - Horizontal methods for molecular biomarker analysis. The scope of this SC is standardisation of biomolecular testing methods applied to foods, feeds, seeds and ther propagules of food and feed crops including methods that analyse nucleic acids [e.g., polymerase chain reaction (PCR), genotypic analysis and sequencing], proteins [e.g., enzyme linked immunosorbent assay (ELISA)], and other suitable methods, and variety identification and detection of plant pathogens.
o ISO/TC34/SC16/WG8 Meat Speciation
o ISO/TC34/SC16/WG9 Subsampling of seeds and grains
o ISO/TC34/SC16/WG10 Rapid nucleic acid amplification methods
o ISO/TC34/SC16/WG11 Biobanking for agriculture and food production
o ISO/TC34/SC16/WG12 Molecular biomarker for agricultural fibres.
• ISO/TC34/SC24 - Quantitative NMR. This is a newly formed SC led by Japan that is aimed at standardisation of methods to establish the purity of food relevant substances.
• ISO/TC 34/SC 19 - Bee products (including WG 1 on Honey), aimed at standardisation of the whole process and circulation of bee products, including but not limited to the following:
products standards, basic standards, beekeeping practices, quality standards, testing method standards and storage and transportation standards.

The European Committee for Standardization (CEN), is an association that brings together the National Standardisation Bodies of 34 European countries. It is one of three European Standardisation Organisations recognised by the European Union and by European Free Trade Association (EFTA) as being responsible for developing and defining voluntary standards at a European Union (EU) level. CEN provides a platform for the development of EU standards and other technical documents in relation to a variety of different products, materials, services, and processes. CEN also supports standardisation activities in relation to a wide range of fields and sectors.

In 2019, a new technical committee TC 460 on Food Authenticity was formed for the purpose of standardisation of analytical methods for verification of food authenticity and data evaluation aspects including validation concepts and terms and definitions, as appropriate. This CEN Techical Committee will standardize analytical methods for verification of food authenticity and data evaluation aspects including validation concepts and terms and definitions, as appropriate. The methods shall be validated, to the extent possible.

The CEN/TC will deal with horizontal and vertical methods regarding food authenticity. Vertical authenticity methods which are already dealt with by vertical CEN/TCs (i.e. cereals, fats and oils, cocoa, milk) are excluded. New methods for specific matrices which could be covered by vertical CEN/TCs (i.e. cereals, fats and oils, cocoa, milk) will only be included in the work program of CEN/TC "Food authenticity" after consultation and in agreement with the respective vertical CEN/TC.

Working Groups:

CEN/TC 460/WG 1 - Concepts, terms and definitions

CEN/TC 460/WG 2 - Species analyses using DNA-based methods

CEN/TC 460/WG 3 - Coffee and coffee products

CEN/TC 460/WG 4 - NMR analysis

CEN/TC 460/WG 5 - Validation concepts of non-targeted methods

CEN/TC 460/WG 6 - Stable Isotope Analysis

CEN/TC 460/WG 7 - LC/MS based methods

CEN/TC 460/WG 8 - Spectrophotometric methods

WG CAG - Chair Advisory Group

The British Standards Institution (BSI) was established in 1901 as the Engineering Standards Committee with aims of developing common industrial standards, reducing waste, and protecting the consumer through the use of licensed marks to identify conformity to standards.

BSI is a non-profit distributing organisation that provides global services in the fields of standardisation, systems assessment, product certification, training, and advisory services. As well as developing its own standards, BSI inputs into international standards development via CEN and ISO. BSI inputs into CEN and ISO food authenticity standardisation activities. Most countries will have a national standards organisation.

Horizontal methods for the BSI Food Analysis Committee AW/275, which is the result of the BSI’s input into CEN/TC275 and ISO/TC34/SC16 can be found here. This page gives both published standards (166), standards in development, as well as the members of the committee.

A list of all the BSI food committees, with their own links, can be found here. BSI Standards of individual foods can be searched on individual committee pages.

BSI Food Authenticity Committee AW/34/46 is responsible for the UK input into CEN/TC 460 (Food Authenticity) and to liaise work with AW/15 Coffee and AW/34/19 Bees (Honey). Further information can be found here.

AOAC INTERNATIONAL brings together government, industry, and academia to establish standard methods of analysis that ensure the safety and integrity of foods and other products that impact public health around the world. Areas of focus include safety of foods, beverages, dietary supplements, animal feeds, soil and water and veterinary drugs.

The Official Methods of AnalysisSM (OMA) program is AOAC INTERNATIONAL’s premier methods program. Approved methods undergo rigorous, systematic scientific scrutiny to ensure they are highly credible and defensible, and can be used with confidence by industry, regulatory agencies, research organizations, testing laboratories, and academic institutions. The current version is the 21st edition, which is available via an annual subscription.

AOAC’s Food Authenticity Methods (FAM) program focuses on identifying analytical tools to better locate and characterise the intentional and economically motivated adulteration of foods. The top three most adulterated foods in the United States are olive oil, milk, and honey (Smith, 2020).

The FAM launched with two working groups (Targeted and Non-Targeted Testing) with the following goals:
• Survey the Targeted Testing landscape to identify most commonly tested ingredients and their associated targeted adulterants.
• Identify existing methodologies for food fraud Targeted Testing and their (AOAC) status, and identify reference materials and Proficiency Testing programs.
• Identify Targeted Testing analytical gaps and set priorities for developing AOAC standards.

• Map an accelerated process for AOAC Targeted Testing standards development and review for use in the event of a major international food fraud incident.
• Develop standards for Non-Targeted Testing (NTT) of foods including generic standard method performance requirements (SMPR) to evaluate NTT methodologies for their reliability and usefulness.
• Develop acceptance criteria for NTT methodologies for use as ingredient screening tools in domestic and international trade.

FAM currently has three active working groups:
• Non-Targeted Testing
• Targeted Testing
• Matrices Subgroups for olive oil, honey, and milk/milk products.

FAM has developed draft SMPR for targeted and non-targeted food authenticity methods. SMPR set minimum performance criteria that food authenticity testing methods for milk, honey and olive oil need to fulfil.

International Life Sciences Institute (ILSI) is a non-profit, worldwide organisation created in 1986 to promote collaboration between scientists from industry, academia, and the public sector in the provision of evidence-based scientific solutions for food safety. The organisation promotes the dissemination of expertise through expert groups, workshops, symposia, and relevant publications. Membership is open to companies active in the food or food-related sector, as well as companies engaged in the manufacture of medicinal products and products for human consumption and producers of ingredients used in the food supply chain.

ILSI Europe has a Food Authenticity Task Force that is addressing the current lack of an integrated approach by endorsing analytical, regulatory, traceability, risk assessment and management, and defence aspects of food protection. The objective is also to minimise the risk of food fraud by establishing appropriate tools:
• vulnerability assessment
• available intelligence
• analytical methods and devices.

The output will be a peer-reviewed publication that will summarise the findings, giving an overview of the existing approaches to ensure consumer safety and product authenticity. It is
expected that the publication will be accompanied by a guidance document useful for all stakeholders.

Other groups

Global Food Safety Initiative (GFSI)
USP's Food Chemical Codex Food Ingredients Expert Committee (USP FCC FIEC)
IAFP Food Fraud Professional Development Group
European Spice Association (ESA)

GFSI is an industry group which has a membership of approximately 65+% of the world food trade. The GFSI requirement are the primary benchmark for food safety management system standards based on ISO
22000 in such as BRC, IFS, SQF, FSSC, and others. The key participants include food producers and retailers who require the standard to be met often through their entire upstream supply chains. The food fraud requirements were mandated since January 2018 and reinforced in a May 2018 technical document. GFSI has a formal and clear definition of food fraud as well as structured requirements for a food fraud vulnerability assessment and food fraud mitigation plan. These requirements must be documented in the food safety
management system.

USP FCC FIEC contribute to food authenticity by defining how to ensure the authenticity of ingredients. Outputs are specific monographs that describe the ingredient and how to test for it
(https://www.foodchemicalsCodex.org/). USP FCC FIEC will be added to the FAN Food
Fraud mitigation section under ‘Services’.

International Association for Food Protection (IAFP) Food Fraud Professional
Development Group. The group’s mission statement is to serve as a multidisciplinary
forum for open discussion and exchange of information among collegiate, regulatory and
industry regarding the unique challenges associated with the developing area of food
fraud, including food safety and economic implications https://www.foodprotection.org/getinvolved/professional-development-groups/food-fraud-pdg/. This information will be added
to the FAN ‘Organisations’ page.

European Spice Association (ESA) is the European counterpart of the American Spice Association (ASTA) has a working group that looks at how to detect food fraud. ESA also takes a holistic approach of integrated supply chains and has produced guidance relevant to herbs and spices: https://www.esa-spices.org/index-esa.html/publications-esa. This information will be added to the FAN Food Fraud mitigation section under ‘Guidance’.