Facing the challenges of food fraud in the global food system
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Date
2021
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Academic Press
Abstract
Food fraud is an economically motivated act of deception which can impact consumers and the reputation of actors along a food supply chain. Food fraud includes adulteration, substitution, mislabeling, and other actions that might reduce the quality of food, deceive consumers, and other actors in the food supply chain, while increasing financial gains for the perpetrators. These actions can harm human health, thus raising food safety concerns, as demonstrated by outbreaks of disease caused by the adulteration of food. Food fraud occurs within global and national food systems and with a complex of intersecting food supply chains and networks, food fraud is increasingly challenging to combat. Many governments now have food monitoring programs, food safety strategies, and legal instruments to minimize opportunities for food fraud. This chapter provides an overview of common acts of food fraud and discusses some of their implications. Case studies on the adulteration of infant milk powder and horse meat substitution are used to describe how acts of food fraud can be perpetuated, how technology played a role in identifying the fraud, and how governments and the public responded. The technological advances and emerging analytical methods that are critically important to face the evolving challenges of food fraud are outlined. Specifically this chapter discusses emerging technologies, advantages and limitations of DNA, fatty acid, and elemental profiling, and stable isotope analysis used as analytical tools for detecting food fraud and determining the provenance of food. © 2021 Elsevier Inc.
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Keywords
Food, Fraud, Crime, Packaging rules, Consumer protection, Product labeling, Legal aspects, Diseases, Milk products, Meat, DNA, Carboxylic acids
Citation
Sammut, J., Gopi, K., Saintilan, N., & Mazumder, D. (2021). 2 - Facing the challenges of food fraud in the global food system. In C. M. Galanakis (Ed.), Food Authentication and Traceability, (pp. 35-63): Academic Press. doi:10.1016/B978-0-12-821104-5.00009-X