Critiquing the Inter-Disciplinary Literature on Food Fraud

The European Horsemeat Scandal of 2013 is a recent manifestation of the problem of ‘Food fraud’. It is important from a criminological perspective because it exists at the nexus between organized crime and bad business practice and is a contemporary example of criminal-entrepreneurship. From a practical perspective it is a pernicious criminal activity perpetuated by diverse organized-crime-groups, rogue-entrepreneurs and food-industry-insiders. It is a white-collar-crime committed in the commercial arena, across an extended international food-chain. Geographic and policy boundaries make it difficult to police. Although a high level of awareness of the fraud exists globally, there is a dearth of critical academic research into the phenomenon. The extant literature is spread thinly across various disciplinary silos. This essay by two Business School Scholars and a Food Scientist, discusses the need to develop a more critical, inter-disciplinary approach to developing appropriate theoretical frameworks

Advancing understanding of pinch-points and crime prevention in the food supply chain

From a crime prevention perspective, food crime remains a challenge. Whilst opportunity for crime can be reduced by implementing certain measures; and addressing the potential perpetrators, their possible actions and criminal behaviour, the trade-offs which occur in the food supply chain that motivate such activity, still remains complex. These heuristic factors have led, in this study, to the consideration of ‘pinch-points’ where crime could occur as a result of capability, opportunity, motivation, rationalisation and supply chain pressure. Pinch-points can be addressed using the Food Crime Countermeasures Framework (FCCF) conceptualised in this paper. We argue that conventional anti-fraud measures: detection, deterrence and prevention are essential to support food fraud risk assessments, as are continuous interventions and response strategies. The implementation of countermeasures that initially drive prevention and deterrence and where required, detection, intervention and response form the basis of our approach. This paper focuses on the United Kingdom (UK) however it should recognised that food crime is a global issue

Calibration in a Data Sparse Environment: How Many Cases Did We Miss?

Reported case numbers in the COVID-19 pandemic are assumed in many countries to have underestimated the true prevalence of the disease. Deficits in reporting may have been particularly great in countries with limited testing capability and restrictive testing policies. Simultaneously, some models have been accused of over-reporting the scale of the pandemic. At a time when modeling consortia around the world are turning to the lessons learnt from pandemic modelling, we present an example of simulating testing as well as the spread of disease. In particular, we factor in the amount and nature of testing that was carried out in the first wave of the COVID-19 pandemic (March - September 2020), calibrating our spatial Agent Based Model (ABM) model to the reported case numbers in Zimbabwe

Scale matters: Variations in spatial and temporal patterns of epidemic outbreaks in agent-based models

Agent-based modellers frequently make use of techniques to render simulated populations more computationally tractable on actionable timescales. Many generate a relatively small number of “representative” agents, each of which is “scaled up” to represent some larger number of individuals involved in the system being studied. The degree to which this “scaling” has implications for model forecasts is an underdeveloped field of study; in particular, there has been little known research on the spatial implications of such techniques. This work presents a case study of the impact of the simulated population size, using a model of the spread of COVID-19 among districts in Zimbabwe for the underlying system being studied. The impact of the relative scale of the population is explored in conjunction with the spatial setup, and crucial model parameters are varied to highlight where scaled down populations can be safely used and where modellers should be cautious. The results imply that in particular, different geographical dynamics of the spread of disease are associated with varying population sizes, with implications for researchers seeking to use scaled populations in their research. This article is an extension on work previously presented as part of the International Conference on Computational Science 2022 (Wise et al., 2022)[1]

‘Using Script and textual analysis and close readings of media reports to analyse ‘So-called Food-Fraud Scandals’’

In the last four decades, the food industry in the United Kingdom has been subject to a considerable number of so-called “food-fraud scandals.” In order to better understand how to investigate and theorise these ‘scandal’ incidents in context (comprising signals-modus operandi-multiple emergent narratives), the original research recognised and critiqued how scandal incidents were framed. Eight food related incidents were scrutinised using a case study approach from published, open access evidence. A framework of incidents was developed across the stages, within and of, the modus operandi, and also to visualise how the incident itself was framed by being termed a scandal. This methodological case study addresses some of the strengths, but also the constraints and practical challenges, of the methodological approach and the methods employed within the research. The advantages and disadvantages of iterative case study research are critiqued. This case study is of value to researchers undertaking iterative, interpretivist, pragmatic studies and to help them to understand the influence and potential bias associated with their positionality

Allied Chemical, the Kepone Incident, and the Settlements: Twenty Years Later

Twenty years ago this July the happenings at a small chemical plant in Hopewell, Virginia ushered in what has since become an incident of national impact and importance. Through the prosecution of criminal cases, the filing of civil personal injury suits and the closing of the James River to fishing, the release of the chemical from the Kepone manufacturing process gained national attention

Illegal activity in the UK halal (sheep) supply chain: towards greater understanding

Food Supply chain theory and practice assumes that the processes involved are legal and value adding. In this paper, using examples from the UK halal (sheep) meat supply chain, we outline a value extracting value chain through a mixed methods qualitative approach consisting of face-to-face-interviews and a documentary research strategy underpinned by Narrative Inquiry. Building on previous theoretical work on Illegal Rural Enterprise, we present a narrative of an individual rogue-farmer, and explore his involvement in the illegal halal (‘smokies’) trade over a fifteen-year period. The paper provides a compelling story that will enable investigators to better understand illegal enterprise from a supply chain perspective and more adequately address the concerns stated in the UK Fraud Act 2006. The paper will be useful to food standards agencies in that furthers our understanding of entrepreneurial practice and morality in the food industry. The results demonstrate that illegal rural enterprise is a multi-faceted concept that requires an understanding of business practices and processes alongside a multi-agency approach to enterprise orientated crime. Our approach suggests that supply chains can be ‘flipped’ in order to understand illegal processes in addition to conventional legal processes

Wind-induced, cross-frontal exchange on Georges Bank : a mechanism for early summer on-bank biological particle transport

Author Posting. © American Geophysical Union, 2003. This article is posted here by permission of American Geophysical Union for personal use, not for redistribution. The definitive version was published in Journal of Geophysical Research 108, C11 (2003): 8011, doi:10.1029/2002JC001358.Water exchange across the tidal-mixing front on the southern flank of Georges Bank (GB) is examined using a two-dimensional (2D) primitive equation ocean model. The model domain features a cross-frontal transect including a June 1999 hydrographic (CTD)/ADCP study made as part of the U.S. GLOBEC Northwest Atlantic/Georges Bank program. The model was initialized with temperature and salinity fields taken on the 15 June 1999 CTD section and run prognostically with tidal forcing, measured winds, and representative surface heat flux. The results show that fluctuations of wind plus tidal mixing can play the following essential role in the short-term transport of water and particles from the stratified region to the mixed region on GB in early summer, when stratification is just developing with a weak thermocline at a depth of about 10 m. First, a passing weather front drives a wind-induced on-bank Ekman transport of the upper part of the water column at the tidal-mixing front and associated particles in the surface mixed layer. Then, when the wind relaxes or changes direction, the water in the on-bank extension of the front (above the thermocline) mixes quickly through enhanced tidal motion in shallower depths of water. As a result, particles that are advected along the extended front stay in the previously well-mixed region of the bank. Surface heating tends to increase the strength of the thermocline and reduce the thickness of the surface mixed layer. This in turn accelerates the on-bank movement of the front under an easterly wind favorable for Ekman transport and thus enhances the on-bank, cross-frontal transport of particles. Since the wind-induced, cross-frontal on-bank transport of water can occur episodically during passages of meteorological fronts, these could produce a larger net cross-frontal flux than that produced by just tidal forcing on equivalent timescales. Therefore wind-induced processes can be important in the on-bank cross-frontal flux of copepods and other zooplankton species that exhibit shallow maxima in their vertical distributions over the southern flank of GB in early summer.This research was supported by the U.S. GLOBEC Northwest Atlantic/Georges Bank program through NOAA grants NA56RG0487, NA960P003, and NA960P005 to C. Chen, NOAA support to R. Schlitz, G. R. Lough, K. Smith, and J. Manning, and NSF grants OCE 96-32357, OCE 98-06379, and OCE 02-27679 to R. Beardsley

The 1995 Georges Bank Stratification Study and moored array measurements

The 1995 Geoges Bank Stratification Study (GBSS) was the first intensive process study conducted as part of the U.S. GLOBEC Northwest Atlantic/Georges Bank field program. The GBSS was designed to investigate the physical processes which control the seasonal development of stratification along the southern flank of Georges Bank during spring and summer. Past work suggested that during this period, larval cod and haddock tended to aggregate to the thermocline on the southern flank where higher concentrations of their copepod prey were found. A moored array was deployed as part of GBSS to observe the onset and evolution of sesonal stratification over the southern flank with sufficient vertical and horizontal resolution that key physical processes could be identified and quantified. Moored current, temperature, and conductivity (salinity) measurements were made at three sites along the southern flank, one on the crest, and one on the northeast peak of the bank. Moored surface meteorological measurements were also made at one southern flank site to determine the surface wind stress and heat and moisture fluxes. The oceanographic and meteorological data collected with the GBSS array during January-August 1995 are presented in this report. Meteorological data collected on National Data Buoy Center environmental buoys 44011 (Georges Bank), 44008 (Nantucket Shoals), and 44005 (Gulf of Maine) are included in this report for completeness and comparison with the GBSS southern flank meteorological measurements.Funding was provided by the National Science Foundation under Grant Numbers OCE-98-06379 and OCE-98-06445

The preparation of large surface area lanthanum based perovskite supports for AuPt nanoparticles: tuning the glycerol oxidation reaction pathway by switching the perovskite B site

Gold and gold alloys, in the form of supported nanoparticles, have been shown over the last three decades to be highly effective oxidation catalysts. Mixed metal oxide perovskites, with their high structural tolerance, are ideal for investigating how changes in the chemical composition of supports affect the catalysts' properties, while retaining similar surface areas, morphologies and metal co-ordinations. However, a significant disadvantage of using perovskites as supports is their high crystallinity and small surface area. We report the use of a supercritical carbon dioxide anti-solvent precipitation methodology to prepare large surface area lanthanum based perovskites, making the deposition of 1 wt% AuPt nanoparticles feasible. These catalysts were used for the selective oxidation of glycerol. By changing the elemental composition of the perovskite B site, we dramatically altered the reaction pathway between a sequential oxidation route to glyceric or tartronic acid and a dehydration reaction pathway to lactic acid. Selectivity profiles were correlated to reported oxygen adsorption capacities of the perovskite supports and also to changes in the AuPt nanoparticle morphologies. Extended time on line analysis using the best oxidation catalyst (AuPt/LaMnO3) produced an exceptionally high tartronic acid yield. LaMnO3 produced from alternative preparation methods was found to have lower activities, but gave comparable selectivity profiles to that produced using the supercritical carbon dioxide anti-solvent precipitation methodology