Food Quality Magazine
ISSUE 01 | SUMMER 2014
Fighting Food Fraud: Intelligence
and Common Cents
Since the melamine in milk and
horsemeat in lasagna scandals,
awareness about Food Fraud among
food consumers is slowly starting
to increase. The response to these
cases has done little to deter those
who commit Food Fraud. Food
Fraud is occurring with even greater
frequency in many, if not most of the
largest food producing countries in
the world.
Unfortunately, testing for known
adulterants, creating new standards,
conducting audits, awarding certifications, delivering speeches and
giving presentations about Food
Fraud are doing nothing to solve the
problem. If we don’t know what we
are looking for, the unknown is almost impossible to find. Testing may
indicate the existence of a problem,
but in most cases, technology is not
advanced or focused enough to tell
us exactly what the problem is, where it is occurring and who the culprit
is. Additionally, testing every product and ingredient is not feasible,
economically or physically. European
governments have spent millions of
Euros/Pounds testing for horsemeat and creating new initiatives and
standards to address Food Fraud.
The bottom line is that European
food consumers are no safer than
they were before the horsemeat
scandal. For those of us who live
outside of Europe, we are no more immune from Food Fraud than
the Europeans. Food Fraud touches
almost every single person on this
planet.
The challenge with combatting Food
Fraud is not what we know about
it, but rather what we don’t know.
Consumers have no idea as to the
scope of Food Fraud. When you consider the total number of ingredients
that you consume in a single day,
and when you consider where those
6
ingredients come from, the problem
with Food Fraud may suddenly cause
you to be more concerned. Do you
have any idea how many people
handle food ingredients before they
touch your tongue? Do you know
where those ingredients come from?
Do you know anything about the
conditions in which