FOOD FRAUD: Definition and Remedy

1

by: Lanrewaju AdetunjiBREE 651 (Seminar)

2OVERVIEW Definition Health Cases Impact Remedy

Overview

Definition

Health Aspect

CasesImpact

Remedy

33Overview DEFINITION Health Cases Impact Remedy

SYNONYMS: economic adulteration > economically-motivated adulteration >

food counterfeiting.

Food fraud (FF) is “any deliberate adulteration or

misrepresentation of food, food ingredients, or food

packaging…for economic gain.” ~ (Spink, 2011)

44

Fig 1:Routine Activity Theory (RAT)Source: en.wikipedia.com

Overview DEFINITION Health Cases Impact Remedy

complex supply chain

network create enabling

environment.

• criminal networks

concealed within legitimate

network;

• traceability extremely

difficult.

collaboration among

perpetrators

Source: National Center for Food Protection and Defence Incidents Database (Total

incidents : 356)

Fig 2: Number of Food Fraud Incidents by

Methods

5Overview DEFINITION Health Cases Impact Remedy

Fig 3: Number of Food Fraud

Incidents by Food Product Category

Do culprits mean harm to consumers?

Often not.

Yet health is affected;

• Consumers with allergies

• Vegan and vegetarians

• Reported cases of sickness (even death!)

6Overview Definition HEALTH Cases Impact Remedy

7Overview Definition Health CASES Impact Remedy

The Melamine Incident

Other notable cases:

Mountain States Creamery Co. (1934), Austrian Wine diethylene glycol Adulteration

(1986), Horsemeat Scandal (2013), the Gutter Oil Scandal in Taiwan (discovered: 2014)

Dec. 2007 July 2008 Aug. 2008 Sept. 2008 Oct. 2008 Dec. 2008

Fig 3: Timeline of the

melamine incident

Regulating agencies

• Lack of public trust

Honest stakeholders

• Lost patronage

• Implication

• loss due to recalls (retailers)

Home countries

• Stiffened international relation/trade

• Lower FDI (esp. developing countries)

8Overview Definition Health Cases IMPACT Remedy

9Overview Definition Health Cases Impact REMEDY

Source: Guidance on Food Fraud Mitigation US Pharmacopeial Convention (USP)

>>Current efforts

FDA’S Food Safety Modernization Act (FSMA)

“…the focus…would be on those economically motivated

adulterants that are reasonably likely to cause illness or

injury…not [those] that solely affect quality and value…”

(FDA-2011-N-0920)

www.foodshield.org

www.foodfraud.org

www.foodfraudresources.org

10Overview Definition Health Cases Impact REMEDY

Manufacturers

• Improve raw material quality analysis

• Avoid sharing audit programs with 3rd parties

Retailers

• Develop interest in what they sell

Consumers

• Use product label

11

Regulatory Bodies

•More R&D effort on analytical methods

•Inform consumers

•Track them locally

•Share info globally

Overview Definition Health Cases Impact REMEDY

Food industry is highly money-driven; FF is on the rise,

Culprits are slyer,

Novel analytical techniques needed,

Room for R&D; engineers can be frontrunners.

“Desperate times call for desperate measures”

~Unknown Author

12

http://www.prevention.com/food/healthy-eating-tips/food-fraud-11-most-common-cases?s=12

Routine Activity Theory. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Routine_activity_theory

Food Fraud Initiative, Michigan State Initiative. http://foodfraud.msu.edu

2014 Taiwan food scandal (2015). In Wikipedia, The Free Encyclopedia. Retrieved 02:32, February 1, 2015, from http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=2014_Taiwan_food_scandal&oldid=642781781

Gossner, C. M.-E., Schlundt, J., Ben Embarek, P., Hird, S., Lo-Fo-Wong, D., Beltran, J. J. O., . . . Tritscher, A. (2009). The Melamine Incident: Implications for International Food and Feed Safety. Environmental Health Perspectives, 117(12), 1803-1808. doi: 10.1289/ehp.0900949

Moore, J. C., Spink, J., & Lipp, M. (2012). Development and Application of a Database of Food Ingredient Fraud and Economically Motivated Adulteration from 1980 to 2010. Journal of Food Science, 77(4), R118-R126. doi: 10.1111/j.1750-3841.2012.02657.x

Sharma, K., & Paradakar, M. (2010). The melamine adulteration scandal. Food Security, 2(1), 97-107. doi: 10.1007/s12571-009-0048-5

Spink J. (2011). Defining food fraud and the chemistry of the crime for imported food products. In: Ellefson W, Zach L, editors. Import food safety. Washington, DC: Inst. of Food Technologists.

Spink, J. (2012). Counterfeiting food (Vol. 24, pp. 9-9): Consumers Union.

Sumar, S., & Boville, C. (1995). Food Fraud. The Journal of the Royal Society for the Promotion of Health, 115(1), 9-12. doi: 10.1177/146642409511500104

Yanzhong Huang (2014). The 2008 Milk Scandal Revisited. http://www.forbes.com/sites/yanzhonghuang/2014/07/16/the-2008-milk-scandal-revisited/

13

“

”

Thanks for listening.

Merci beaucoup!

?

14

Instructor:

• Professor Ngadi

TA:

• Divya Gupta, Ms

Reviewers:

• Paddy Enright, Mr

• Sarah Fioravanti, Ms

• Rachele Fischer, Ms

• Débora Vieira Parrine Sant' Ana, Ms

Acknowledgement