Food Authenticity Network

Another FANtastic year: In 2024 we added even more #foodanalysis and fraud mitigation best practice and signposts to our website. Added to our monthly e-mail bulletin, we want FAN to be the best free global members' club since The Spice Girls Appreciation Society. Sign up here https://lnkd.in/e5c9TB8P With very best wishes from the FAN Elves - Selvarani Elahi MBE, Gary Bird, Merry Rivas Gonzalez, John Points, Sterling Crew. For those of you who celebrate Christmas, have a joyous time. What else would you like FAN to do in 2025?

FAN Newsletter available for free download: Link in comments. In this issue: Authenticity test method explainers, authentic food reference databases, European Food Fraud Community of Practice, a US perspective on food fraud prevention, botanical adulterants prevention programme, sugar in fruit juice case study. Plus we welcome Campden BRI and Natural Trace as FAN Partners, welcome five UK Public Analyst laboratories as new Centres of Expertise, and announce dates for our Analysis 4 Authenticity Conference 2025. Not forgetting our 2024 bragging rights – Selvarani Elahi MBE wins Food Defender of the Year Many thanks to our contributors this issue: Saskia van Ruth, Dr. Darin Detwiler, LP.D., Stefan Gafner, Arne Duebecke

We are thrilled to announce that Campden BRI has become a FAN Partner! With over 4,000 member companies in 90 countries, Campden BRI is the trusted, premier, independent technical partner of choice for the food and drink industry. Leveraging its 250-plus world-renowned technical experts, it helps to make food safer, tastier, healthier, affordable, sustainable, convenient, and innovative, underpinned by investment in meaningful research and science. Campden BRI offers an extensive range of services including consultancy, analysis and testing, processing, contract research, manufacturing support and guidance, training, and regulatory and labelling advisory services. Members and clients benefit from industry-leading facilities for analysis, product and process development, and sensory and consumer studies. Campden BRI is ISO9001 certified and many of the analytical services are UKAS (United Kingdom Accreditation Service) ISO17025 accredited.  (www.campdenbri.co.uk ) FAN already acknowledges Campden BRI as a Food Authenticity Centre of Expertise (https://lnkd.in/dTCgi7Q7); with Campden BRI’s industry knowledge and expertise, this partnership enhances our ability to offer even more robust and industry relevant resources to support members to combat #foodfraud and ensure #supplychainintegrity, furthering our mission to protect consumers and legitimate businesses worldwide. This partnership is a significant step towards a safer and more authentic global food supply! We're delighted to offer 𝗖𝗮𝗺𝗽𝗱𝗲𝗻 𝗕𝗥𝗜 𝗺𝗲𝗺𝗯𝗲𝗿 𝗰𝗼𝗺𝗽𝗮𝗻𝗶𝗲𝘀 𝟱𝟬% 𝗼𝗳𝗳 𝘁𝗵𝗲 𝗿𝗮𝘁𝗲 𝗼𝗳 𝗙𝗔𝗡 𝗣𝗹𝗮𝘁𝗶𝗻𝘂𝗺 𝗮𝗻𝗱 𝗚𝗼𝗹𝗱 𝗣𝗮𝗿𝘁𝗻𝗲𝗿𝘀𝗵𝗶𝗽 (such Partners receive our quarterly global food fraud dashboard), for further information, please contact us at [email protected]. Thank you. Bertrand Emond Peter Headridge Sterling Crew UK National Measurement Laboratory (NML) at LGC

Tomato origin fraud in UK: media investigation A BBC investigation (link in comments) has uncovered substitution of Italian tomatoes with products originating from the sanctioned region of Xinjiang in China. This then supplied many own-brand retail canned and pureed tomatoes in the UK. There is a legal, and common, supply route for unsanctioned Chinese tomatoes to go into ingredient supply but - in the UK - retail cans and purees are usually Italian. In this case, the BBC uncovered a clandestine supply route via central Asia. This was discovered by investigative journalism (into the supply route and trade records), subsequently supported by laboratory testing (trace element profiling). An example of forensic audit and laboratory analysis being used in a weight-of-evidence approach. Photo by Dan Gold on Unsplash

Fake documentation: simple frauds are the easiest #foodfrauds Fake test reports for nutritional analysis could be an increasing watch-out. A few countries, such as France and Singapore, have a mandatory front-of-pack “nutri-score” rating for pre-packed food. Indonesia is in the process of implementing. Others have voluntary “traffic light” labels. There can be a strong commercial pressure that “our product must not be rated D”. What would be easier than to fake a test certificate or lie about a result?  The practice is already known in energy-rating scores for domestic appliances and fuel consumption ratings of cars.  If called out, then the perpetrator could claim that it was an honest typo or explainable by analytical uncertainty. Luckily, “documentation fraud” is high on the risk radar of alert food brandowners.

Food Crime AMBER alert: Risk of Distribution Fraud Thefts from Food Businesses The National Food Crime Unit (NFCU) of the UK Food Standards Agency has issued an 𝗔𝗠𝗕𝗘𝗥 Food Crime Alert on the Risk of Distribution Fraud Thefts from Food Businesses. There has been a recent increase in the reporting of distribution fraud being used as a method of stealing high value food products from UK based companies. The method of theft will include impersonating an existing business and using falsified documentation such as email addresses, invoices or even fake websites. 𝗪𝗛𝗬 𝗛𝗔𝗦 𝗧𝗛𝗘 𝗡𝗙𝗖𝗨 𝗜𝗦𝗦𝗨𝗘𝗗 𝗧𝗛𝗜𝗦 𝗔𝗟𝗘𝗥𝗧? This alert is based on recent reports of this methodology being used in high profile thefts of food. Because of this NFCU is sharing this information via industry groups in England, Wales and Northern Ireland to encourage vigilance to this potential risk, and that food businesses update any risk assessments and processes to increase their resilience to this form of fraud.      𝗔𝗖𝗧𝗜𝗢𝗡 𝗥𝗘𝗖𝗢𝗠𝗠𝗘𝗡𝗗𝗘𝗗 1. Ensure that this information is used to inform any vulnerability or fraud risk assessments with appropriate actions in place. 2. Inform relevant colleagues with responsibility for sales and customer contracts to be aware of any unusual or suspicious activity such as changes to bank details from existing customers or new customers requesting extremely large orders of high value items. 3. If unsure whether a purchase is legitimate, do not reply directly to contacts via email or messages. Instead use publicly listed information for the company that are attempting the purchase and contact them directly to validate the details you are being given. 𝗖𝗢𝗡𝗧𝗔𝗖𝗧 𝗡𝗙𝗖𝗨 - If you become aware of information relevant to this Food Crime Alert, please share with us via: WEBSITE – visit food.gov.uk and click 'Report' at the top of the page. TELEPHONE –08000 28 11 80 EMAIL – [email protected] Please quote the alert number A002 in correspondence. Our processes enable us to handle information discreetly. Read full alert: https://lnkd.in/dzNqRsqw ANDY QUINN Jennifer D.

The Food Authenticity Network is proud to be a Partner in this project and we can't wait for it to start in January 2025 so that we can start contributing to the new EFF-CoP: European Food Fraud Community of Practice.

Food adulteration can mean life or death. A sobering reminder: 3 vulnerable people (2 children) died this month after eating breakfast in an Indian state-run shelter. It had been made from adulterated ingredients, including turmeric containing lead chromate. The challenge for the "authenticity community" is to disseminate best practice in fraud defence from well-resourced food manufacturers to small businesses, charities and local authorities in all corners of the world. The challenge for analysts is cheap, simple, point-of-use test methods that can be used as easily in a rural African primary school as in a large US distribution warehouse.

Food Adulteration: You like Tomato, I like Tomayto If data mining for food adulteration incidents, always remember that the US regulatory definition is much wider than that of many other countries. US “adulteration” includes everything from pesticide residues to salmonella. In some cases, the root cause may still be #foodfraud. For example, the new FDA Compliance Policy on histamine in fish. Histamine is formed after temperature abuse. This may just be poor practice. But when lied about (falsified storage records or durability dates) then it is fraud. Food safety is not always top of fraudsters’ priority lists.

Q - When is a steak not a steak? A – When it is made from cauliflower, yeast and marmite. Maybe. Permitted product names for “meat-substitutes” have been inconsistent across the EU. It is clear (EU 1169/2011) that “meat” is not permitted. France and Italy have gone one stage further, banning a list of related terms such as “steak”. Last month, the EU Court of Justice interpreted that 1169/2011 already prohibits terms such as “steak” on non-meat products. Therefore Member States cannot enact extra National laws. France and Italy will need to reverse. A quick online shopping search still shows many “Vegan Steaks” on the UK market, where interpretation now diverges from the EUCJ ruling. Does this really mislead consumers? If so, what would you name them instead? Photo by Alex Munsell on Unsplash