Global Food Fraud Trends and Their Mitigation Strategies: The Case of Some Dairy Products: A Review

This review was initiated with the objective of assessing global food fraud trends and their mitigation strategies with special emphasis on some dairy products. Different aspects of food fraud such as the types of food fraud (adulteration, tampering, counterfeiting, artificial enhancement, use of non-declared, unapproved, or banned biocides, misrepresentation of nutritional content, fraudulent labeling claims and removal of authentic constituents etc), global food fraud trends, why is food fraud a growing concern, incidents of food fraud, top ten food fraud vulnerable food ingredients and milk and milk based products fraud and their mitigation strategies to address food fraud were discussed. The increasing trend in food fraud practices led to food safety concerns; which led companies to build brands on reputable basis for safety and quality. In the meantime markets grew from local to global. This led to complexity of supply chains and this has aggravated food fraud. Based on this, it was concluded that fighting food fraud and adulteration remains a race between the criminals committing food fraud and the scientists developing new methods to uncover food fraud, frequent analysis and quality control measures  are essential to create awareness among the public about malpractices in food  supply chains, consumers must be aware about the kind of food they consume, the regulatory authorities should realize and practice frequent inspection of the market to check whether food products meets the minimum legal standards. It is also recommended that academic institutions should shift from intervention and respond to prevention, define the value of technology and enforcement of food laws and education in behavioral sciences and criminology. The industry’s food fraud prevention focus has to be holistic and has to build consumer confidence, industry has to engage governments in request for comments and risk assessment. The governments has to focus broadly on product fraud not just adulterants, define food fraud in laws not just in regulations or guidance documents, create and engage public private partnership forum and risk assessment. Keywords: Global, Food, Fraud, mitigation, safety, dairy, product

Food Fraud Vulnerability assessment: reliable data sources and effective assessment approaches

Abstract Multiple food fraud vulnerability assessment (FFVA) tools have been developed and refined to capture and quantify food fraud issues in the supply chain. The aim of this research is to review existing FFVA tools and the databases that underpin them and consider the challenges, limitations and opportunities in their use. The databases considered include: the Rapid Alert for Food and Feed Safety (RASFF) database, the Food Fraud Risk Information, Decernis Food Fraud Database, FoodSHIELD, and HorizonScan. Four FFVA tools, Safe Supply of Affordable Food Everywhere (SSAFE), the two Food Fraud Advisor’s vulnerability assessment tools and EMAlert, are also critiqued in this paper from the viewpoint of the tools available and their efficacy for food fraud vulnerability assessment

An overview on the Impact of Food Fraud Incidences in Various Countries and its Detection Methods, Assessment Techniques and Preventive Measures

Food fraud is not just a local issue but perhaps a global phenomenon. If the food available in the market are undetected or poorly controlled, this can harm consumer health. Food fraud causes a lack of traceability of supply chains and may eventually be a risk to food safety. The purpose of this paper is to acquaint the various types of food fraud and to evaluate the detection methods in identifying the adulterants. It also addresses the importance of vulnerability assessment of food fraud and key actions required for its prevention. Fighting food fraud will remain a race between the fraudsters and scientists developing new methods to prevent them. The review is unique that it summarized food fraud types, basic and instrument-based detection techniques for adulterants identification and it also focuses on the international governing bodies concerned with food laws and regulations. This study also provides perceptions of the interplay between vulnerability assessment and food fraud prevention

Incidents and potential adverse health effects of serious food fraud cases originated in Asia

Food fraud has long been regarded as a major issue within the food industry and is associated with serious economic and public health concerns. Economically motivated adulteration, the most common form of food fraud, has consequences for human health, ranging from mild to life-threatening conditions. Despite the potential harm and public health threats posed by food fraud, limited information on incidents causing illness has been reported. Enhancing the food control system on the Asian continent has become crucial for global health and trade considerations. Food fraud databases serve as valuable tools, assisting both the food industry and regulatory bodies in mitigating the vulnerabilities associated with fraudulent practices. However, the availability of accessible food fraud databases for Asian countries has been restricted. This review highlights detrimental food fraud cases originating in Asian countries, including sibutramine in dietary supplements, plasticizer contamination, gutter oil, and the adulteration of milk. This comprehensive analysis encompasses various facets, such as incident occurrences, adverse health effects, regulatory frameworks, and mitigation strategies

Muslim consumers' awareness and perception of halal food fraud

Halal is an important aspect of food selection as it is one’s part to obey religious obligations and commandments. Since the halal food industry covers the farm-to-table operations, therefore unwanted practices which culminate to halal food fraud along food supply chain has become a major concern among Muslim consumers. This is because food fraud is a subjective concept, hence objective verification of fraudulent activities and the extent of fraud could be difficult to verify. The current study was therefore carried out to determine Muslim consumers’ awareness and perceptions towards halal food fraud. A total of 352 respondents from Klang Valley areas were randomly selected to be the target respondents in this study. The data obtained were analyzed using descriptive analysis, chi-square analysis, and factor analysis. The results indicated that most of the respondents (96.9%) in Klang Valley areas were aware of halal food fraud issues. The findings also showed that gender, age, education level, and occupation had significant relationships with awareness of halal food fraud. Three factors were classified as influential to Muslim consumers’ perception towards halal food fraud namely halal logo, labeling and packaging, authorities’ exposure and enforcement as well as consumer attitude. The study recommended that Islamic authorities should continuously seek ways to improve and educate consumers towards halal food fraud while the government should further strengthen their important role of enforcing law and penalties to irresponsible industry players

Food Fraud in the EU: Analysis of Reports in the Rapid Alert System for Food and Feed

openFood fraud is a major concern to public health, consumer confidence, and the integrity of the EU food industry. Although the EU legal framework lacks a clear definition for food fraud, it provides regulations like the General Food Law, Food Information to Consumers Regulation, and Official Controls Regulation, which serve as a foundation also for addressing fraudulent practices. The General Food Law was passed in 2002, but the specific criteria for identifying food fraud were not defined until 2019. Nevertheless, incidents such as the dioxin crisis in Belgium in 1999, the illegal dyes crisis in 2005, the melamine crisis in 2008, the Chinese milk scandal in 2008, and the Horsemeat scandal in 2013 highlight the financial and public health consequences of food fraud. In this study, food fraud and adulterations reported in the RASFF database from 2005 to 2021 (n=2031) were analysed to identify the overall pattern and trend. The United Kingdom emerged as a focal point with 31.8% of all food fraud notifications, followed by Italy (9.0%). China and India were identified as the predominant origins of food fraud, constituting 16.94% and 11.96% of the reported cases, respectively. The study found that nuts, nut products, and seeds accounted for the highest proportion of fraud/adulteration cases at 22.01%. Followed by fruits and vegetables (10.49%), and meat and meat products other than poultry (10.44%). Furthermore, the study identified health certificates as the common manipulated aspect in food fraud, representing 40.92% of reported cases. In addition, mislabelling, adulteration, and tampering were common with meat and meat products, whereas document forgery was more frequent with nuts and seeds. Grey market activities were prevalent among dietetic foods, while counterfeiting was primarily observed in soups and sauces. From the findings, it is recommended that the regulatory authorities within the EU collaborate and work together to identify each country’s unique challenges and develop specific prevention strategies accordingly. Further, the collaborative efforts should focus on sharing intelligence, harmonising standards, and developing joint initiatives to combat cross-border food fraud incidents. This initiative should consider and incorporate WTO rules to ensure fair and transparent trade while safeguarding consumers. The EU should also consider developing specialised regulations and standards for each high-risk food category. Targeted campaigns and awareness programs should be launched to help consumers identify vulnerable products and understand labelling regulations.Food fraud is a major concern to public health, consumer confidence, and the integrity of the EU food industry. Although the EU legal framework lacks a clear definition for food fraud, it provides regulations like the General Food Law, Food Information to Consumers Regulation, and Official Controls Regulation, which serve as a foundation also for addressing fraudulent practices. The General Food Law was passed in 2002, but the specific criteria for identifying food fraud were not defined until 2019. Nevertheless, incidents such as the dioxin crisis in Belgium in 1999, the illegal dyes crisis in 2005, the melamine crisis in 2008, the Chinese milk scandal in 2008, and the Horsemeat scandal in 2013 highlight the financial and public health consequences of food fraud. In this study, food fraud and adulterations reported in the RASFF database from 2005 to 2021 (n=2031) were analysed to identify the overall pattern and trend. The United Kingdom emerged as a focal point with 31.8% of all food fraud notifications, followed by Italy (9.0%). China and India were identified as the predominant origins of food fraud, constituting 16.94% and 11.96% of the reported cases, respectively. The study found that nuts, nut products, and seeds accounted for the highest proportion of fraud/adulteration cases at 22.01%. Followed by fruits and vegetables (10.49%), and meat and meat products other than poultry (10.44%). Furthermore, the study identified health certificates as the common manipulated aspect in food fraud, representing 40.92% of reported cases. In addition, mislabelling, adulteration, and tampering were common with meat and meat products, whereas document forgery was more frequent with nuts and seeds. Grey market activities were prevalent among dietetic foods, while counterfeiting was primarily observed in soups and sauces. From the findings, it is recommended that the regulatory authorities within the EU collaborate and work together to identify each country’s unique challenges and develop specific prevention strategies accordingly. Further, the collaborative efforts should focus on sharing intelligence, harmonising standards, and developing joint initiatives to combat cross-border food fraud incidents. This initiative should consider and incorporate WTO rules to ensure fair and transparent trade while safeguarding consumers. The EU should also consider developing specialised regulations and standards for each high-risk food category. Targeted campaigns and awareness programs should be launched to help consumers identify vulnerable products and understand labelling regulations

Applying federated learning to combat food fraud in food supply chains

Ensuring safe and healthy food is a big challenge due to the complexity of food supply chains and their vulnerability to many internal and external factors, including food fraud. Recent research has shown that Artificial Intelligence (AI) based algorithms, in particularly data driven Bayesian Network (BN) models, are very suitable as a tool to predict future food fraud and hence allowing food producers to take proper actions to avoid that such problems occur. Such models become even more powerful when data can be used from all actors in the supply chain, but data sharing is hampered by different interests, data security and data privacy. Federated learning (FL) may circumvent these issues as demonstrated in various areas of the life sciences. In this research, we demonstrate the potential of the FL technology for food fraud using a data driven BN, integrating data from different data owners without the data leaving the database of the data owners. To this end, a framework was constructed consisting of three geographically different data stations hosting different datasets on food fraud. Using this framework, a BN algorithm was implemented that was trained on the data of different data stations while the data remained at its physical location abiding by privacy principles. We demonstrated the applicability of the federated BN in food fraud and anticipate that such framework may support stakeholders in the food supply chain for better decision-making regarding food fraud control while still preserving the privacy and confidentiality nature of these data

Consumer Response to Fraudulent Producer Behavior in the Agri-food Marketing System

Over the last decade, food fraud scandals, such as the adulteration of Chinese milk with melamine, the discovery of horse-meat in many European meat products, and the mislabeling of Italian olive oils, have increased the attention of the media, consumers, and governments about the vulnerability of the food system to intentional adulteration or misrepresentation of product ingredients or products themselves based on economic motives (Lotta and Bogue 2015). Food fraud is defined as the intentional substitution, addition, tampering, or misrepresentation of food products for economic gains (Spink and Moyer 2011). Food fraud is motivated by economic gain and is enabled by two important features. First, consumers cannot verify the presence of economically important attributes, such as whether a product is “organic,” even after having consumed the good, for many of the products affected by food fraud. These types of goods are called credence goods. Second, the monitoring of labeling or certification requirements is costly

Food fraud: policy and food chain

Food supply chain fraud can arise in terms of the integrity of the food item, the processes used to produce that food item and/or the people employed and the data that accompanies the food item. Emergent food fraud themes include characterization of food fraud, drivers of supply chain fraud, traceability systems and mechanisms for deterrence. Options for action at global, supply chain and organizational levels are the ongoing development of data centralization systems especially ensuring that distinct databases can be coordinated to add value through collective data analysis, and secondly ensuring there are appropriate deterrence mechanisms in place so that food fraud mitigation moves from a stance of fraud detection to one of fraud prevention

Food Fraud: A persistent problem that demands a comprehensive approach

Food fraud commonly refers to the deliberate and economi­cally motivated adulteration and mislabeling of food, but more broadly defined it also includes food theft, simulation that makes a fraudulent food product look like the legiti­mate product it copies, diversion, and overrun (Moyer et al. 2017). It is a longstanding and persistent challenge that impacts the global food sector; according to some estimates, food fraud results in annual costs of $40 billion (Food Standards Agency 2020). The complexity of globalized agri-food supply chains which are long, fast-moving, and involve a large number of intermediaries, coupled with lax regulatory monitoring and oversight and lenient penalties, create opportunities for both legitimate actors who oper­ate in the food supply chain and criminal organizations to engage in food fraud