Food Fraud is a Widespread Problem

Food fraud is a widespread problem worldwide, and unsuspecting consumers are most vulnerable.

Find out what’s happening, why it’s occurring, and how to protect yourself. This is a three-part podcast series.

Food fraud is the adulteration, dilution or mislabeling of goods stocked on the shelf — is part of a growing trend of fakehousehold goods.

Although there is little data on the frequency of food fakery, experts say there’s growing awareness of the problem.

What I will share with you in this podcast series:
Podcast 1 (this podcast):

Expose the hidden problems of food fraud that are now considered dangerous, worldwide epidemic;

Podcast 2:

Discover the top 6 foods most subject to food fraud. Explore ways to avoid being the victim of food fraud, and what to do if you suspect it.

Podcast 3:

Discover which spices and beverages most prone to fraud. Explore ways to avoid being the victim of food fraud, and what to do if you suspect it.

According to the UK’s Food Standard Agency, food fraud is lumped into these categories:

  • recycling animal by-products back into the food chain, or packing and selling products with an unknown origin
  • knowingly selling goods which are past their ‘use by’ date the deliberate misdescription of food, such as: products substituted with a cheaper alternative, for example, farmed salmon sold as wild, and Basmati rice adulterated with cheaper varieties making false statements about the source of ingredients, i.e. their geographic, plant or animal origin
  • it may also involve stolen or poached animal meat

Food fraud is an international problem that’s growing.

This international issue undermines our global, large-scale food production and food-trade systems.

Investigators have uncovered thousands of counterfeit food products, such as fraudulent chocolate and adulterated olive oil, and even name-brand alcohols. Countless more counterfeits remain under the radar.

According to Mitchell Weinberg of Inscatec, and an advisor on food security, “Around the world, food fraud is an epidemic — in every single country where food is produced or grown, food fraud is occurring. Just about every single ingredient that has even a moderate economic value is potentially vulnerable to fraud.”

Who is behind food fraud?

This fraudulent work is thanks to organized international criminal networks.

Regulators and investigators tells us that food fraud is just a sprinkle on the cake of problems that developed during economic crisis and have persisted.

Organized crime groups now also counterfeit daily consumer goods such as detergents, foodstuffs, cosmetic products and pharmaceuticals. As the counterfeiting has increased, so has vulnerability of consumers.

The U.S. Pharmacopeial Convention recently established a Food Fraud Database to address the lack of information on this topic. And a new study in the Journal of Food Science reports the top offenders identified by the database, including olive oil, milk, baby formula and honey. Tara Steketee, the senior manager for brand protection at OpSec Security, an anti-counterfeiting consulting firm. “There are actually counterfeit tomatoes, believe it or not.” She says, garden-variety tomatoes get marketed as the more expensive heirloom ones.

Food is vulnerable to counterfeiting and fakery

Food is easier to fake because the distinctions from the real deal are often subtle, and may require sophisticated awareness to avoid.  Criminals are banking on shoppers not noticing subtle differences between wines, or discovering that their expensive clams are actually a cheap white fish.

The high number of imported foods consumed by Americans makes it harder to identify the frauds. Currently, imports account for 85% of seafood, 39% of fruits and nuts and 18% of vegetables, according to Huffington Post article on this subject.  The FDA  found imported foods and drugs nearly tripled over the past 10 years.  Shaun Kennedy, of the University of Minnesota and an expert on food fraud, estimates that 10 percent of food that consumers buy in the developed world was adulterated.

According to the NY Times: “. . .  French authorities seized 100 tons of fish, seafood and frog legs whose origin was incorrectly labeled; 1.2 tons of fake truffle shavings; 500 kilograms, or 1,100 pounds, of inedible pastries; false Parmesan cheese from America and Egypt; and liquor from a Dutch company marketed as tequila.”

Risks of counterfeit foods: serious or a minor nuisance?

Passing off a cheap ingredient as its fancier counterpart is profitable, especially when selling consumers a high-end label that’s really just a cheaper knock-off.

At best, consumers get a bad deal by paying for a higher quality item when it’s really a low-grade product. At worst, consumers get poison and fall ill, or even die. In addition, animals are sometimes poached. This international issue demands more from you, the consumer, by requiring you to understand much more about your food, beverages and other personal products.

Counterfeit foods carry significant health risk because we are consuming them. Consumers with allergies could have a reaction, and some Indian restaurants in Europe were busted for substituting ground peanuts in recipes calling for almonds. Some substituted items may contain toxic ingredients like lead or melamine.

Bargain hungers and unsuspecting shoppers are most vulnerable

They unknowingly pick up cheap versions of common items. The cost of our appetite for variety is increased risks from less rigorous food safety practices in other countries.

Savvy criminals may also re-route a problematic import through other countries in an attempt to evade U.S. bans.

And the profit margins for food products are such that by making even 1% change to the recipe, it can lead to big gains. The United States’ Grocery Manufacturers Association reported that economic adulteration and counterfeiting of consumer foods & products would probably cost the industry between $10 billion to $15 billion a year.

In the next podcast, I’ll tell you about the foods at higher risk of fraudulence, and give you tips for avoiding them.

Please share this post. Now I want to hear from you. Do you think you’re at risk of food fraud?

Resources:

Huffington Post: “Food fraud: 8 hoaxes to look for in the grocery store”

United Kingdom Food Standards Government Agency
National Geographic “Labels on what we eat often mislead”

NY Times: “Food fraud is more widespread than suspected”

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