Food Fraud Advisors

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Important Announcement About the Food Fraud Risk Information Database on Trello

On 1st September 2022, there was a major change to Food Fraud Advisors’ Food Fraud Risk Information Database on Trello.

Changes to the Database

After five years of providing free, 100% open-access food fraud information to the international food community, in August 2022 we made the difficult decision to change the content we publish on the Trello board.

From 1st September 2022, users of the Trello board will see a major change.  The database will continue to be updated with information for individual foods/ingredients, but we will no longer be providing (close-to) real-time food fraud incident news.   This means that separate cards for each individual food or raw material will continue to be updated when new risks or new emerging food fraud trends become known, but lists of incidents of food fraud will no longer be published on the board.  The “Recent Incidents” columns have been discontinued and the final column was August 2022.

 

Changes to the Food Fraud Trello Board

 

What to do Now

Keep using the Trello board to research food fraud risks for foods, ingredients and materials.  Click on the cards for individual food types to see the risks.

For recent food fraud incidents, find a new source of up-to-date information:
1. Sign up to a paid food fraud/food safety alert service like FoodChainID’s HorizonScan; or
2. Perform your own searches online; or
3. Sign up for a free service (the JRC Food Fraud Monthly Reports are good);
4. Or, to retain access to our expertise in food fraud incident reporting, you can subscribe to Karen Constable’s newsletter, 🍏 The Rotten Apple 🍏.  It’s full of awesome food safety and supply chain news, and (for paying subscribers), food fraud incident reports, just like the ones that were previously published on the Trello board.

Food fraud incident reports will also be appended to the downloadable offline ‘snapshots’ of the database, which you can purchase from our website for US197.  We publish a new downloadable ‘snapshot’ six times per year.

Summary

❌ Recent Incidents Columns (Lists) have been discontinued

✅  Individual cards continue to be updated with information about food/ingredients/materials when new information becomes available

✅  Get recent food fraud incidents from 🍏 The Rotten Apple 🍏 newsletter, or by purchasing a downloadable, offline snapshot of the database, or by signing up for an alternative source of food fraud information, such as HorizonScan.

If you’ve got any questions, contact us.

 

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Investigating Susceptibility to Food Fraud

Updated 26th June 2022

Some foods are more susceptible than others to economically motivated adulteration, substitution and dilution.  Understanding the susceptibility of an ingredient or raw material type is an important part of every food fraud vulnerability assessment process.

A TWO PART PROCESS

Susceptibility is investigated in two parts.

(1) General Susceptibility (is this type of food often affected by food fraud or not?)

You can estimate a foods general susceptibility using publicly available information.

(2) Specific Susceptibility (is the food we purchase likely to be affected by food fraud?)

The specific food fraud attributes depend on your supply chain, management of the supply chain and testing and auditing activities.

STEP 1. GENERAL SUSCEPTIBILITY

To investigate the general susceptibility of a food or ingredient to food fraud, use publicly available information about incidences of fraud that have occurred in the past and that might occur in the future.

There are a few different ways to access information about previous incidences and emerging issues with a raw material type, as shown below.

1. Online databases – access to historical data:

A food fraud database provides a way to access historical information about food fraud.

A food fraud database is a collection of information about food fraud incidents and food fraud risks. There are a number of free and paid databases operated by governments, not-for-profits and private companies available worldwide.  The type of data varies from database to database, as does the cost and the features.  For a current list of food fraud databases, check out our post Food Fraud Databases Compared.

2. Email alerts via subscription service:

Email services provide near-to-real-time information about food fraud incidents as they occur. This can be a good way to keep on top of developing food fraud risks.   Below is a list of email subscriptions that can provide information about food fraud.

  • Food Forensics, a laboratory located in United Kingdom, offer a monthly horizon scanning risk newsletter to members.
  • FoodChainID Horizon Scan is a paid subscription service that provides alerts on adulteration and fraud, as well as food safety contamination events.
  • Some trade associations provide email services to members.
  • The Rotten Apple, by Karen Constable (of Food Fraud Advisors), is a weekly newsletter that includes trends and analysis as well as a summary of updates made to the Trello Food Fraud database each week.
  • Government-run food safety and food regulatory bodies in some jurisdictions send emails to interested parties.  Contact your local authority for more information.

3.  Direct intelligence:

Direct intelligence is another means of gathering information about the occurrence of food fraud for a given food or ingredient.

  • Information can be obtained by asking law enforcement officials and government departments.
  • Suppliers can provide information about their material types.
  • Trade associations can be approached for information on food fraud and emerging issues.
  • Conferences and webinars about food fraud and food defence are held regularly and these can be a good source of information.

STEP 2. SPECIFIC SUSCEPTIBILITY

In step one you considered the general likelihood of food fraud occurring for the food or ingredient you are assessing.

In step two you must consider the characteristics of your specific material as it is purchased by your food business.

Characteristics that should be considered include those associated with your supply chain, purchasing policies and the format of the material, for example whether it is a powder or liquid or solid.

Each characteristic should be considered with regards to how it could affect the degree to which a person may be motivated to fraudulently adulterate the material and how it could allow a person to:

a) gain access to the material,

b) commit fraud by adulterating, substituting or diluting the material or

c) avoid detection.

To ensure that all relevant characteristics are considered it is best to use a checklist

Checklists help to ensure that all relevant information has been considered.

You can create your own checklist or use a checklist prepared by experts such as those found in a proprietary Vulnerability Assessment Tool.

There are a number of fraud assessment tools available on-line, with differing degrees of usefulness (some are really annoying to use!).  The most comprehensive checklist for food fraud vulnerability assessments can be found in Food Fraud Advisors’ Vulnerability Assessment Tools.

Need more help?  Get easy-to-use, comprehensive downloadable templates in our online training course.

Visit our training academy today

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Top 5 Food Frauds of 2022 (so far)

Food Fraud Advisors’ Principal, Karen Constable, shares her top five food frauds for 2022.

At the time of writing, we’re almost halfway through 2022.  This year we have discovered some interesting frauds, and unfortunately also plenty of food frauds that occur over and over. Due to the criminal nature of food fraud, each of the examples shared here represents just a tiny proportion of the food fraud that is being perpetrated on a daily basis across the globe.

The incidents and fraud types in this list have been chosen because they pose food safety risks to consumers or are likely to be affecting large numbers of products.

Traditional Guatemalan candies on street stall during Lent in Antigua, Guatemala

 

  1. Counterfeit Wonka chocolate bars in the United Kingdom

Counterfeiting is a type of food fraud where a well-known brand of food or drink is produced by an unauthorised manufacturer and passed off as the real thing.  In the case of Wonka bars, the brand owner is Nestle.

A man was caught in March 2022 for supplying counterfeit Wonka bars to retail outlets in the United Kingdom.

To make the counterfeit chocolate bars, the fraudster would have had to use heavy industrial food manufacturing machinery, which is expensive, and order custom-printed packaging, which is also expensive and can usually only be purchased in large quantities.  That’s a significant financial investment.

Because of the high costs to manufacture the fake products, we can infer that the fraudster must have expected to make significant profits.  We know that the risk of getting caught did not deter him because he was prosecuted for doing the same thing in 2016.  In April 2022 he pleaded guilty to doing it again.

One source says that Nestle, the legitimate brand-owner, no longer makes Wonka bars.  However, at least three online candy stores in my home country (Australia) are selling them today, which makes me think that there are counterfeit Wonka bars in many countries.  This could be quite a big operation.

The British authorities said that some of the counterfeit bars found in the United Kingdom contained undeclared hazelnuts, which makes them seriously dangerous to allergic consumers.

  1. Secret tank in milk tanker fraud in Italy

This fraud is unusual.  Or perhaps it happens a lot but is rarely exposed.

In this fraud, a truck used for transporting milk had been modified so that the milk could be diluted with water just prior to unloading.  This allowed for milk to pass quality tests, and then to be diluted after passing the tests but before being pumped into the purchasers holding tanks.

Like the counterfeit chocolate bars, this type of fraud requires significant financial investment; it is expensive to make major modifications to stainless steel tanks.  Only two shipments of milk were confirmed to have been affected, but it is likely that the fraud was intended to be done on a much larger scale.

This fraud poses risks to food safety because the water used to dilute the milk could be contaminated, and the tanker might not be able to be properly cleaned because of the extra hardware inside the holding tanks.

Listen to the whole (fascinating) story of how the fraud was discovered here:

  1. Seafood smuggling

Seafood smuggling is a ubiquitous food fraud.  It happens a large scale, all the time.  It is happening now, in 2022.

Seafood smuggling results in traceability problems that go right through the supply chain.  It’s estimated that at least 10% of seafood in any retail outlet has been affected by food fraud at some point between harvest and store.

Governments lose money from seafood smuggling because taxes, tariffs and duties are avoided when seafood is smuggled.

Smuggled seafood is significantly more likely to have originated in illegal catch areas, or caught in excess of fishing quotas, so it puts a strain on the environment as well as having an economic cost.  Smuggled seafood can also be affected by species fraud, where the fish is mislabelled.

When frozen seafood is smuggled it may also be affected by expiry date fraud too.  Expiry date fraud is when old frozen seafood is relabelled so it looks ‘younger’ than it actually is.

A large seafood smuggling ring was discovered by authorities in China in February of 2022, and this is probably the tip of the iceberg when it comes to seafood smuggling.

Seafood fraud is more common than you might think

 

  1. Organic fraud with grains and cereals from Eastern Europe

False claims about the organic (or ‘bio’) status of grains and cereals is a type of food fraud we call misrepresentation.  Organic fraud in bulk commodities is probably happening frequently in 2022, exacerbated by supply chain issues from the Ukraine war.

With this type of fraud, the grains or cereals are conventionally-grown, but their documentation is forged to make it look like they are organic.

Example: a shipment of oats was seized by authorities in Italy in January 2022 because they were alleged to have been falsely labelled as organic.

  1. Country of origin fraud

This type of fraud occurs commonly and affects packaged retail products across many food product categories.

In Europe in 2022, there have been quite a few incidences of country-of-origin fraud and protected designated origin (PDO) fraud, including:

  • A market operator in Italy was accused of country-of-origin fraud in relation to dried fish, legumes and spices which were claimed to be from Africa and Japan but which were instead from countries deemed ‘at risk’, meaning they require official clearances before being sold.
  • Products including fresh fruit, vegetables, mushrooms and honey in France displayed rates of up to 30% “anomalies” in the way the origin of the food was declared.  The survey focussed on food from outside of France being incorrectly declared as being French.
  • Significant quantities of bulk wine and bottled wine was seized by Italian authorities who allege the wine was labelled or was going to be labelled with false claims regarding its geographical provenance.

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Want the inside scoop on frauds like this?

Become a paying subscriber of The Rotten Apple for weekly food fraud updates.

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Saffron Fraud (Everything You Ever Wanted to Know)

What is Saffron?

Saffron is a spice made from the dried stigma (part of the flower) of the saffron plant (Crocus sativus). You can see the red stigmas in the pictures.

Saffron flowers showing the red coloured stigmas. Image credit: Lorenzo Lamonica

 

Why is Saffron Vulnerable to Food Fraud?

Genuine saffron is harvested by hand, highly prized for its colour and flavour and very expensive.  In fact, it is the most expensive spice and costs between USD $1,100 to $11,000 per kg.  The international saffron market was worth US $430 million in 2018.

Saffron trade is complicated.  Saffron’s most important growing areas are in Iran, Greece, Morocco and India. Afghanistan and Spain are also important sources of saffron.  Saffron labelled Spanish is mostly grown in other countries but packed in Spain. Iran accounts for most global production at 90% – 93% but only accounts for 40% of direct global exports, according to the report (confusing!), apparently because the Iranian saffron is resold by other countries.

With so much of its production in one country, and with a short harvesting season, saffron supply is extremely vulnerable to weather events.  For example, there was a tripling of prices from 2006 to 2009 because of heavy frost in Iran in 2007.  Climate change is a threat, with increased moisture in some areas leading to more fungal plant diseases, and drought in other areas limiting yields.

Saffron Fraud

Saffron is one of the most frequently adulterated foods.  Powdered saffron is more at risk than whole saffron.

The biggest food safety issue with saffron fraud is probably the use of synthetic dyes to boost the colour of fraudulent whole saffron and saffron powder. Sudan I-IV and Rhodamine B dyes have been found in saffron and are considered potentially genotoxic and carcinogenic.

Saffron threads. Photo by Syed F Hashemi

 

Adulterants in Whole Saffron

Here are some of the things that are added to saffron to fraudulently increase its value.

  • Parts of saffron flowers, including the yellow style and the white style.
  • Filaments from other plants, including corn fibres, safflower stigmas, calendula stigmas, pomegranate fruit fibres
  • Filaments from other sources including silk.  Adulterant filaments may be dyed with plant dyes including beetroot, pomegranate, fruit peel.
  • Liquids that are added to increase weight, including oils, glycerin and honey
  • Dyes and aroma compounds as listed below

Adulterants in Saffron Powder

Here are some of the things that are added to saffron powder to fraudulently increase its value.

  • Turmeric powder
  • Paprika powder
  • Ground seeds of sweet fennel, or annatto
  • Dried marigold flowers
  • Gardenia (Cape Jasmine) extract, for their crocetin esters which are also in saffron
  • Natural dyes from flowers and roots
  • Artificial dyes including erythrosine, ponceau 4R, tartrazine, Sudan dyes, magenta III and rhodamine B
  • Safranal, which is a synthetic aroma compound

Also, there are historical reports of fillers added for increasing the product’s weight, including chalk, gypsum and heavy spar (barium sulfate)

Other Types of Fraud (Non-Adulteration-Type Food Frauds)

  • Selling Philippine saffron or “saffron flowers” as if they are real saffron (C. sativus).  They are instead safflower or kasubha.
  • Exhausted saffron sold as whole saffron
  • Coloured paper shreds sold as saffron
  • Provenance fraud, in which the geographical origin of the saffron is misrepresented

Saffron testing

Testing is a challenge.  Microscopic inspections can be done on powdered as well as whole saffron, but they are time-consuming and expensive.  In addition, visual examinations won’t necessarily recognise adulteration with colourants or safranal.

Some DNA-based tests struggle to differentiate safflower from saffron, because they are closely related.  DNA tests also don’t find safranal or dyes.  Spectroscopic methods can be simple and quick but they are not very sensitive and won’t pick up all adulterants.   There are many other authenticity test methods, each with its own challenges.  It is recommended that a suite of complementary tests be used to cover all types of adulteration and fraud.  Provenance testing has been successfully done using stable isotope methods.

This piece was orginially published in The Rotten Apple, a weekly newsletter about food safety, food fraud and sustainable supply chains. 

Take a Look at The Rotten Apple Newsletter

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Frequently Asked Questions

Vulnerability Assessment Tool (BRC Method) – Frequently asked questions (FAQ)

Is this assessment tool suitable for businesses operating to food safety management system standards other than BRC?

This spreadsheet is designed for food fraud vulnerability assessments for businesses that manufacture food in accordance with the requirements of BRC’s (British Retail Consortium) GLOBAL STANDARD FOOD SAFETY, Issue 7 and Issue 8, which require that businesses assess their ingredients and raw materials for vulnerability to economically motivated adulteration, substitution or dilution.

The risk assessment methodology and matrix are based on the recommendations of the British Retail Consortium in their document Understanding Vulnerability Assessment (2015).  It is not suitable for vulnerability assessments on finished food products.  It is not recommended for businesses that need to meet the requirements of other food safety management system standards.  It is not suitable for food defense vulnerability assessments.  We recommend you purchase our other tools instead.

Is this assessment tool suitable for businesses that do not operate a food safety management system?

If your business is not operating to a food safety management standard and does not have supplier approval processes, purchasing specifications and robust systems for receiving materials then it is more vulnerable to accepting fraudulent material and this tool will underestimate the risk.

If your business is not operating to a GFSI standard, you should check out our other tools to help you prepare your vulnerability assessment.

What happens if I can’t complete all the questions?

If you have not answered all the questions the tool will calculate a high vulnerability rating. However it is possible to supplement the calculated rating with your own estimate if desired. This means that if you already think that a particular raw material has a very low risk of occurrence or detection you may choose to simply enter your best estimates of likelihood instead of completing all the data fields. This will allow you to prioritise your time and focus on the most important raw materials and ingredients first.  Note that if you do this the resulting assessment documents are unlikely to be acceptable to an auditor because they will not contain a complete explanation of how the risk assessment was performed.  To obtain a complete explanation, every question should be answered.

What if I disagree with the results?

The Vulnerability Assessment Tool calculates likelihood of occurrence and detection using information entered by the user.  Users are encouraged to also enter their own estimates.  The reported results are based on the user’s estimates if they have been entered; if not, calculated results are used.

Why are some of the questions repeated?

The tool was developed to be closely aligned with the recommendations of the British Retail Consortium in their document Understanding Vulnerability Assessment (2015).  That guidance document describes the elements that should be considered when assessing likelihood of occurrence and likelihood of detection and according to the British Retail Consortium’s methodology there are a number of elements that should be included in both occurrence and detection assessments.

Why is the Vulnerability Assessment Tool an Excel spreadsheet instead of specialised software?

The tool was created for Quality Assurance Mangers and Food Safety Managers to use. It was created with Microsoft Excel because most of its intended users are familiar with excel and so can begin entering data as soon as they open the spreadsheet, with no special training.   Data can be copied, pasted and searched just as you would in any spreadsheet and results can be easily extracted for use in other documents. Blank and completed spreadsheets can and should be incorporated into a company’s controlled documents and record-keeping system and Microsoft Excel files are usually suitable for this purpose.

The tabular format of the data entry pages allows users to have a ‘whole picture’ visual understanding of the data that has been entered and the gaps that need to be filled.  Other types of software such as questionnaire-style assessments do not provide a visual overview and require information to be entered in a defined series of steps which can be frustrating. Within the tables of the Vulnerability Assessment Tool, colour-coding functions provide instant feedback about whether an answer affects vulnerability in a positive or negative way, which can be a valuable learning tool.

Why are some of the cells password protected?

Password protection has been applied to many of the cells in the spreadsheet.  There are a number of reasons for this, the most important of which is so that users do not accidentally ‘break’ the formulas which would be very easy to do if it was unlocked.

This means that users are not able to make changes to the wording of the questions or the automatically generated answers.

Can I copy the results into my own spreadsheet or other document?

Yes. The data can be copied, pasted, sorted and manipulated as in any spreadsheet. When copying from the tool use the excel function ‘paste special – values’, which will prevent pasting formulas that might return error values in a different document.

Do I have to purchase a new spreadsheet for each material group?

No, you may make as many copies of this spreadsheet as you need for ONE food business in one manufacturing location.  You may not share it with other food businesses or take it when you change jobs.  For complete terms and conditions click here.

Is there a telephone number I can call for help and support with the tool?

For support, please email support@foodfraudadvisors.com with your query, including your preferred contact details and geographical location (for time zone purposes). We will contact you by telephone or Skype or email an answer to you.

January 2022: Why aren’t the formulas working?

Microsoft 365 recently switched its default Excel formula settings so that by default, formula calculations are turned off.

This means that none of the formulas in any spreadsheet will work until you switch the calculation function back on. To switch formula caluculations on, go to the ‘Formulas’ tab on the Excel ribbon and choose ‘Calculation Options’ on the far right. Set calculations to ‘Automatic’. This will fix the problem.

Can I have access to the formulas that generate the results?

If you disagree with the results the tool allows you to override them; the reported results are based on the user’s estimates if they have been entered; if not, calculated results are used.

If you think the methodology, including the risk calculations should be amended or you think there is an error in any formula please contact us. We want the Vulnerability Assessment Tool to be the best that it can and value your feedback.

Want to buy an unlocked version that is fully customisable?  Request a quote here.

My security settings will not allow me to run macros, is this a problem?

No problem; the Vulnerability Assessment Tool has been created without macros to keep things safe and secure and to prevent headaches with your internal IT systems.

I only have Microsoft Excel 1997 – 2003, will this be a problem?

No problem; the Vulnerability Assessment Tool is compatible with Microsoft Excel 2004 onwards (file extensions .xlsx) and Microsoft Excel for Mac 2011 onwards.  For more information about compatibility, click here.

Can I get a tax receipt?

Australian purchasers receive a tax invoice for GST purposes in their confirmation email.  Purchasers in other countries are not charged any tax but receive an itemised purchase receipt in their confirmation email.