Food Microbiology

Food Frauds

The deliberate substitution, addition, tampering or misrepresentation of food ingredients leads to food frauds. Food fraud is a hugely global issue. The most common type of includes false labeling, false certification, substitute ingredients, banned ingredients, adulterated products, illegal products unfit for human consumption. Food Fraud isn’t limited to these and there are a huge number of products that can be affected. The fact that this is such an international problem presents a real challenge for regulators. When food is crossing so many boundaries, it makes it very difficult for regulators to track. We need to bring together intelligence from around the world and get businesses to share information with each other. The analytical strategies usually used these days typically only examine one element of the food and so will only find one kind of fraud.

• Tempering and counterfeiting
• Economically-motivated adulterations
• Vulnerability assessment
• Mitigation measure and strategy
• Chemical alteration of food