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It’s Time to Stop Underestimating the Scope of Food Fraud

Food fraud affects many more products than consumers know, and not just premium foods like honey and fine wines. It occurs in all parts of the food chain, including commodities such as grains and oils, animal feeds, fruit and bulk ingredients. 

by Karen Constable

This story was originally published by Modern Farmer.

Food fraud has been happening since humans first began to buy and sell food, thousands of years ago. Early Romans faked premium wines and added lead salts to sweeten their drinks, while medieval bakers added chalk and dust to their loaves because it was cheaper than flour.

Modern food systems are built on regulations born of the need to prevent deceptive practices like these. But modern food systems are still riddled with fraud. And yet, food fraud stories in the mainstream media consistently underestimate the breadth and scope of fraud in modern food supply chains. 

Most food fraud stories focus on premium foods such as maple syrup, wasabi, vanilla, caviar and truffles. But while these foods are at risk from food fraud, they make up only a tiny percentage of the foods we eat each day. 

Food fraud affects much more than high-cost foods such as honey and whiskey. It occurs in all parts of the food chain, including commodities such as grains and oils, animal feeds, fruit and bulk ingredients. 

 What is food fraud?

When people use deceptive tactics to make extra profits from food, the result is food fraud. The deception can be perpetrated on an enormous scale, affecting hundreds of shipments of material across multiple years. Or it can be opportunistic, such as forging an organic declaration for a single delivery of oilseeds.

Food fraud can net millions of dollars for the perpetrator and costs the global food industry $40 billion per year. 

Food fraud in bulk ingredients and animal feed

When fraud occurs in raw materials or inputs to the supply chain, huge quantities of food are affected, such as a massive fraud that occurred in organic grains used for animal feed. 

Food fraud affects ingredients and bulk food commodities like grains, as well as high priced consumer products

 

In 2019, a Missouri man was sentenced to more than 10 years in prison after being caught selling more than 10 million bushels of “fake” organic grain worth millions of dollars over a period of seven years. The man told customers he had grown the grain on his certified organic fields when it was non-organic grain that had been grown elsewhere. At other times, he sold grain from “organic” fields that had been sprayed with unauthorized chemicals and mixed non-organic grain into shipments of organic grain to increase profits. 

Most of the affected grain was purchased for animal feed for raising organic meat. Because the grain was not organic, the resulting meat was also not genuinely organic. In this way, the fraud was propagated along the supply chain, from grain trader to animal feed supplier to rancher to slaughterhouse to meat supplier and finally to millions of unsuspecting consumers. 

Cheaper bulk food ingredients are also affected by fraud. Thousands of tons of dried milk powder was adulterated in a massive fraud that led to illnesses in more than 300,000 infants who drank formula made from the milk powder. The fraud had been going on for years, undetected by authorities. 

The milk powder was adulterated with melamine, a poisonous chemical with a high nitrogen content, a whiteish color and a neutral taste. When added to milk powder or wheat gluten, it boosts the apparent protein content of the food in laboratory tests, thereby increasing the amount of money a seller can earn per pound. 

The same thing happened to ingredients used for pet foods. Wheat gluten was adulterated with melamine in 2006 and 2007, with at least 800 tons affected across dozens of shipments. The gluten was used as an ingredient by multiple pet food manufacturers in many brands of dog and cat food, killing an estimated 4,500 pets across the US. 

Different foods, different frauds

Food fraud affects every type of agricultural commodity, including fresh produce, edible oils and tree nuts. Fresh fruit might not seem like a lucrative target for food fraud, but it is vulnerable to counterfeiting, with exporters of some brands of fruit having to compete with unauthorized copies of their own products in importing countries. 

To combat this, Tasmanian cherry growers employ a range of overt and covert anti-counterfeit systems, including intricate, laser-cut carton stickers, custom-printed carton liners, watermarked carton bases and QR codes; while New Zealand kiwifruit growers have experimented with invisible “watermarks” that can be printed onto fruit skins with special food-grade chemicals.

Expensive oils and cheap oils are equally likely to be fraud-affected. Expensive oils such as hazelnut and coconut oil can be diluted with cheaper oils to increase profits for the seller. A recent survey of avocado oils found almost 60 percent did not meet purity criteria, with tests revealing they had been adulterated with sunflower and other oils. 

Speciality oils fetch high prices and can be vulnerable to economically motivated food fraud.

 

Cheap bulk oils such as palm oil can be fraud affected, too. Palm oils are considered to be environmentally unfriendly because their production can cause deforestation, so there is plenty of motivation for fraud perpetrators to make false claims about where and how they were grown or sourced. Soy and canola oils can be falsely claimed to be organic or non-GMO if they were made from GMO crops. This can even happen without the knowledge of the oil mill, which might have been deceived about the GMO status of incoming oilseeds. 

Tree nuts are popular targets for theft, because they keep for a long time and are difficult to trace when sold in bulk by thieves. A single trailer load of pistachios can be worth hundreds of thousands of dollars, netting any thief a tidy profit when he sells them on to legitimate food traders. Food and beverage thefts are now the top cargo crime in the US, with strategic, organized thefts of food shipments increasing by 600 percent between 2022 and 2023. 

Food fraud is pervasive across all parts of the supply chain, from basic agricultural commodities to bulk ingredients used for manufactured foods and through to finished grocery items in every category. 

The Grocery Manufacturer’s Association estimates that at least 10 percent of all retail food has been affected by food fraud in some way by the time it gets into your shopping cart. The real proportion is probably even higher than 10 percent. 

We must stop thinking of food fraud as something that only affects high-priced luxury foods. It takes many forms and can appear in even the cheapest food ingredients and finished products.

What must be done?

Food fraud can only be tackled by the combined efforts of all parts of the food industry. Regulations and rules prohibit food traders and suppliers from selling fraud-affected foods, but laws are ineffective on their own. Enforcement against food fraud is low on food agencies’ priorities, which rightly focus on more pressing issues such as protecting consumers from foodborne illnesses. 

In 2023, the food industry still underestimates how prevalent food fraud is and how many different food types are affected. Purchasers of ingredients and commodities such as grains and oils still rely solely on certificates that can be forged, laboratory tests or that can be faked and letters of guarantee that are not worth the paper on which they are printed. 

All actors in the food supply chain, from growers and packing houses to oil mills, animal feed suppliers, food manufacturers, restaurants and retailers, must do a better job of holding their suppliers to account. That means doing more to check the authenticity of the food, commodities and ingredients they use, instead of relying on the word of the supplier. 

Consumers are, for the most part, at the mercy of the food industry, with no way of telling whether any item in their grocery cart is affected by fraud or not. That is why people in the food supply chain must become a little less trusting of their suppliers and a little more careful about checking for food fraud in the materials they purchase. With a little more effort and a little less blind faith, the industry can together keep everyone safe from food fraud.

Karen Constable is an international food fraud prevention expert, owner of Food Fraud Advisors consultancy and founder of 🍏The Rotten Apple🍏, a weekly update on food fraud, food safety and sustainable supply chains for busy professionals.

Modern Farmer is a nonprofit initiative dedicated to raising awareness and catalyzing action at the intersection of food, agriculture, and society. Read more at Modern Farmer.”

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Food Fraud in Fruit and Vegetables

How does food fraud show up in fresh fruit and veg?

Adulteration-type fraud is rare in whole fresh fruits and vegetables because they have recognisable forms.  However, in developing countries, there have been reports of fruits and vegetables dyed with illegal colourants to improve their apparent value.  Processed fruits and vegetables such as pickles are sometimes adulterated with unauthorised or undeclared colourants.

Other types of fraud, including organic fraud, misrepresentation of origin and counterfeiting also occur in fruits and vegetables.

Theft affects fruit and veg, and it is sometimes smuggled across borders to evade inspections or taxes.  An unusual type of fraud, which involves the infringement of intellectual property rights for proprietary fruit varieties has been reported in Egyptian table grapes recently.

Counterfeiting of premium brands of fruit is said to occur frequently in China. Cheaper fruit is packaged into containers that are labelled to look like premium brands without the authority of the brand owner. Australian cherries, New Zealand kiwifruit and Dole-branded products from the Americas have been affected.

In developing countries, fruits such as mangoes are sometimes ripened using unauthorised practices, such as by treating with calcium carbide, ethephon and oxytocin chemicals. The use of such ripening agents is usually illegal and can be harmful to human health.

The outlook for food fraud in fruit and vegetables

Production is at risk from climate change and prices are affected by extreme weather events, which are becoming more frequent with climate change. Extreme weather events can lead to unexpected supply and demand patterns which can increase motivations for fraud perpetrators.  Large differences in prices between conventionally grown and organic produce can increase the likelihood of organic fraud. Large differences between prices in different countries can encourage smuggling and misrepresentation of origin.

Examples of food fraud in fruit and vegetables

Smuggled watermelons:  Authorities stopped a vehicle carrying 25 tons of illicit watermelons worth $40 million in Chile in August 2023.  The fruit had been smuggled into the country from Peru without the correct biosecurity measures.  An official explained the watermelons were being illegally imported because they were out of season and so were double their usual price (source).

Stolen potatoes:  Routine checks by Italian agri-food officers in April 2023 discovered 16 tons of potatoes which did not have correct documents as to their origin, which is a requirement under European law. The owners of the potatoes were fined (source).

Image by Freepik

Unauthorised grapes: A 16 ton container load of grapes was seized and destroyed at a port in Italy in July 2023, as they were being imported from Egypt.  The grapes were of the ‘Early Sweet’ variety, a proprietary variety that may only be produced under licence.  The owner of the variety’s intellectual property said the grapes were grown in Egypt and were labelled as a different grape variety.  The mislabelling would have allowed the grapes to be imported.  The identity of the grape variety was confirmed with DNA testing.  The intellectual property owner said that this was the fourth container load to be destroyed because of illegal trade in proprietary varieties of fruit in “recent years” (source).

Well-travelled raspberries:  In 2019, a large shipment of non-organic, Chinese-grown raspberries worth $12m was caught by Chilean customs agents as it was being exported from Chile to Canada.  They were labelled Chilean and Organic, claims that were both false (source).

Counterfeit fruits: In 2017 and 2018, nearly 1.1m pieces of fruit were revealed to have been falsely labelled with premium brands such as Dole, Zespri and Sunkist in China.  Thirteen people were prosecuted for their roles in the scam (source).

How to protect yourself from fruit and veg fraud

Food businesses should be aware that food fraud can affect fruit and veg in various ways, with misrepresentation of organic status and origin being the most likely types of fraud in wealthy countries.  Be vigilant to false claims, and verify any claims made by suppliers wherever possible.  Check that organic certificates are valid with the certifying body.  Purchase produce from trusted wholesalers, and avoid purchasing from ‘the back of the truck’.

Consumers should take care when purchasing ‘organic’ fruit from markets and independent grocers, which are more likely to have organic-fraud-affected wares than large retailers which have more robust systems to prevent fraud.  In developing countries, avoid fresh produce that has unnaturally bright colours or is ripe outside its normal season.

Click here to learn more about food fraud

 

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Fake (Counterfeit) Health Supplements

Two US supplement companies share their food fraud stories

Photo by Mika Baumeister on Unsplash

Supplements are supposed to be good for you, but two major brands in the USA have recently gone public over their challenges with counterfeits… and the counterfeits are not at all healthy.

Some of the counterfeit products contained plain rice flour instead of the labelled active ingredients. Some contained undeclared allergens like gluten and soy. One even contained traces of a scheduled pharmaceutical.

The brands NOW Foods and Fungi Perfecti recently went public about their discoveries of unauthorised copies (‘counterfeits’) of their products on Amazon, the online store platform. A third leading brand is said to also be affected.

The NOW Foods counterfeits were discovered after the brand owner received information from loyal consumers who noticed problems with products they had bought online and realised their purchases were not genuine.

One consumer reported that the product did not have the correct smell, colour or capsule size. The company has released images to educate consumers about how to identify genuine and fake versions of their products. Their vice president of global sales and marketing says the brand has experienced significant problems with counterfeits internationally for “years” and says the company is “looking into” anti-fraud measures.

Amazon reported that the fake NOW Foods products had originated in Kenya and contacted consumers who had purchased the product, telling them to throw it away and issuing refunds. Together, the brand owner, Amazon and the Department of Homeland Security plan to pursue and prosecute the supplier.

NOW Foods explains how to spot a fake on their website.

NOW Foods explains how to spot a fake on their website

 

The Fungi Perfecti counterfeits were discovered by the brand owner, which continuously monitors its sales channels to protect its brand. During recent monitoring, the company discovered packages with “irregularities” in one Amazon store and went on to find 23 separate Amazon storefronts all selling counterfeit versions of its products.

Adulterants and allergens

One counterfeited NOW Foods product was labelled as a herbal supplement but turned out to be simply capsules of plain rice flour.

When Fungi Perfecti tested their ‘fake’ products they were alarmed to learn that they all contained the allergens gluten and soy, while the genuine products do not.

Amazon has notified the Fungi Perfecti (fakes) purchasers and removed the products from their site. The brand owner has published the names of the storefronts that were selling counterfeit versions of their products and issued an allergen warning on their website.

Like NOW Foods, they also published images and descriptions showing consumers how to identify counterfeits, as well as a list of authorised sellers of their genuine products.

Amazon reportedly removed 6 million counterfeit items from its online sales platform in 2022, including food, fashion and electronics.

Sources:

https://www.newhope.com/news/now-foods-fungi-perfecti-still-investigating-counterfeit-products-sold-amazon

https://hostdefense.com/blogs/press-releases/fungi-perfecti-makers-of-host-defense-mushrooms-discovers-counterfeit-products-with-known-allergens-being-sold-on-amazon

This story was originally published in The Rotten Apple, a weekly newsletter for food professionals, policy-makers and purveyors. Subscribe for free for weekly insights, latest news and emerging trends in food safety, food authenticity and sustainable supply chains.

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Food fraud hot list

The products below are those that appear to be most commonly affected by food fraud, which includes economically motivated adulteration, substitution and dilution.

A high quality vulnerability assessment includes an in-depth investigation into the incidences of food fraud that have occurred for the particular raw material or ingredient type, so using the list below is just a ‘quick and dirty’ option.  Click here for information about how to investigate previous occurrences using food fraud and food crime databases.

Food Fraud Hot List

  • herbs and spices
  • olive oil
  • organic foods
  • honey and maple syrup
  • seafood
  • milk
  • coffee and tea
  • wine and spirits
  • some fruit juices
assortment of herbs and spices
assortment of herbs and spices

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Honey Fraud – Much Worse Than We Thought?

From the desk of Karen Constable, principal consultant at Food Fraud Advisors.

My daughter loves honey and eats a lot of it. She spent a few months in Europe last year – mostly in Spain –  and told me the honey there had no flavour.  She said it tasted like sugar water.

‘Honey’ that doesn’t taste like honey may have been diluted with water and adulterated with non-bee sugar syrups: food fraud.  Honey is one of the most fraud-affected foods on the planet, so perhaps it shouldn’t be surprising to hear that “honey in Europe just doesn’t taste like honey”.

But I was surprised. Europe takes its honey seriously.  And it takes food fraud seriously, too.  I wouldn’t have been surprised to hear about flavourless probable-fraud-affected ‘honey’ in other parts of the world, but I was surprised to hear my daughter say it was “everywhere” in Europe.

Listen to this post on YouTube by clicking the preview below.

 

The last time I saw Europe-wide honey fraud results they were quite good.  For example, a honey-checking operation that was part of the famous Europol/Interpol anti-food-fraud activity, Operation Opson X, in 2021, found that of the  495 honey samples tested, 93% were compliant.  Separately, a European honey fraud survey in 2015 – 2017 reported only 14% ‘suspicious’ samples.Seven percent, fourteen percent, as non-compliance rates, they are hardly fantastic but they don’t match my daughter’s claim that all the honey she tasted in Europe was affected.

But new results have just been published for a multi-year European anti-honey-fraud operation and they are pretty bad.  Of the 320 samples tested in the operation, almost half were suspected of being non-compliant with the provisions of the European honey standard (the Honey Directive).

What is going on here? Why are these results so much worse than past surveys?

Firstly the samples that were tested do not represent the European-wide honey market.  The sampling focussed only on imported honey and only on adulteration with sugar syrups.

Secondly, the methods used in this most recent round of testing are almost certainly different from previous European surveys.  The test methods are only suitable to identify “suspicions of fraud” by looking for chemical markers of extraneous sugars (presence/absence only) and they are different from the officially-approved honey test methods.

The European Joint Research Council (JRC) says these methods are “the most sophisticated methods” currently available but they have not been validated and they are not part of the regulatory framework.

For this enforcement activity, the analytical results were used only as a tool to decide whether further investigations were needed to uncover fraud in the honey supply chain.  Further investigations included on-site inspections, examination of documents, computers and phone records.

Investigators reported that fraudsters appear to be deliberately adjusting the levels of adulterants so that they can evade border control checks.  The European Union’s Food Safety Commission says that officially-approved honey authenticity test methods are not keeping up with the fraudsters, claiming that analytical methods used for border control checks “lack sufficient sensitivity to detect low and intermediate levels of sugar adulterations”.

Something is just not right with honey in Europe

The investigations began more than eighteen months ago, but it appears likely that there are still high levels of fraud-affected honeys in the European market now. More than sixty percent of importers were found to have imported at least one suspicious consignment.

In fact, the European Food Safety Commission, last week reported that “there is a strong suspicion that a large part of the honey imported from non-EU countries and found suspicious by the JRC of being adulterated remains present and undetected on the EU market” (source).

Takeaways

Honey fraud is difficult to detect and expensive for government agencies to investigate.  Fraud perpetrators have been shown to use sophisticated systems to evade detection, and these investigations appear to show that importers and exporters are working together to defraud customers and governments.

If your business purchases honey, food fraud mitigation activities must go beyond checking documents or relying on letters of guarantee.

As a consumer, it is impossible to tell whether honey is fraud-affected or not, but if you suspect honey of being fraudulent, contact the brand owner as a first step and share your concerns.

…. Or you could seek out incense honey, a premium mono-floral honey from the incense flower in Portugal, for which all samples in a recent analytical test were found to be authentic 😊.

🍏 Source: https://food.ec.europa.eu/safety/eu-agri-food-fraud-network/eu-coordinated-actions/honey-2021-2022_en 🍏

 

*** This post originally appeared in Issue #81 of The Rotten Apple Newsletter.  Subscribe to The Rotten Apple to get unique, helpful food safety and food fraud information direct to your inbox every Monday  ***