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You are here: Home / Archives for VACCP

22nd June 2023 by foodfraudadvisors

HACCP, VACCP and TACCP

What do HACCP, VACCP and TACCP mean?

They are acronyms used in food safety.

HACCP has been around for decades, VACCP and TACCP were introduced in the 2010s.

VACCP and TACCP are no longer used by most food safety experts, and have been superseded by ‘food fraud programs’ and ‘food defense plans’.

 

What does HACCP stand for?

  • HACCP (Hazard Analysis Critical Control Point)  Pronounced ‘hassup’.  HACCP = keeping food safe from accidental and natural risks to food safety.

What does VACCP stand for?

  • VACCP (Vulnerability Assessment Critical Control Point) Pronounced ‘vassup’.  VACCP = prevention of food fraud.  Has been superseded by ‘food fraud prevention’.

What does TACCP stand for?

  • TACCP (Threat Assessment Critical Control Point) Pronounced ‘tassup’.  TACCP = prevention of malicious threats to food, such as sabotage, extortion or terrorism, sometimes called Intentional Adulteration within the US Food Safety Modernization Act.  Has been superseded by ‘food defense’.

What is HACCP?

  • HACCP is a set of principles designed to control and prevent food safety risks during food production.
  • HACCP is not enforced or regulated by any single organization.
  • The ideas of HACCP form the basis of every food safety management system standard that is in use today, including GFSI food safety standards.
  • The principles of HACCP are codified (written down) by the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO), in a set of documents called the Codex Alimentarius , a latin phrase which translates to “Book of Food”.
  • FAO’s General Principles of Food Hygiene CXC 1-1969 contains the HACCP principles (sometimes called HACCP Codex).  Download the 2020 revision of the HACCP Code here: http://www.fao.org/fao-who-codexalimentarius/codex-texts/codes-of-practice/ (click the green check/tick mark on the right side of the page to download).

What is VACCP and TACCP?

  • VACCP and TACCP are terms that emerged during the 2010s as standards agencies, government regulators and industry groups started considering methods to prevent food fraud and malicious tampering.
  • VACCP is for food fraud.
  • TACCP is for food defense.
  • The acronyms VACCP and TACCP are designed to leverage the food industry’s familiarity with HACCP.  But they are unhelpful terms.  The controls in food fraud and food defense plans are nothing like the ‘critical control points’ in a HACCP plan.  The control points in a HACCP plan are operational steps in a food manufacturing process over which the food manufacturer has direct control.  Food fraud and food defense controls are different and they do not work the same way as ‘critical control points’ in HACCP.
  • The terms VACCP and TACCP are falling out of favor within the food safety industry.  They are not referenced specifically within any of the GFSI food safety standards, nor within the USA’s FSMA.

 

What to say instead of VACCP and TACCP?

  • Instead of ‘”VACCP” it is better to say food fraud prevention program.
  • Instead of “TACCP” it is better to say food defense plan.

Learn more

  • Go to our Acronymn Decoder post to discover what other acronyms and initialisms mean.
  • Visit our Food Fraud post to learn ‘What is Food Fraud?’
  • Click here to learn more about food fraud vulnerability assessments.
  • Take a free short course on food fraud here.

food safety food fraud

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Filed Under: Learn, TACCP, VACCP

24th May 2023 by foodfraudadvisors

Acronym Decoder

BRC and BRCGS: British Retail Consortium (superseded) and British Retail Consortium Global Standards.  The British Retail Consortium (BRC) is a group of British companies that published guidance and standards for food manufacturers, including a food safety standard that was also commonly referred to as BRC.  The standards owner is now known as BRCGS.

CoOL or COOL: Country of Origin Labelling.

EMA: Economically motivated adulteration or substitution. EMA is a subset of food fraud and is defined as the fraudulent, intentional substitution or addition of a substance, or dilution of a substance for the purposes of economic gain.  Non-EMA food fraud includes black market importation and trading of food and alcoholic beverages for the purposes of avoiding duty and taxes.

DEFRA: The Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, a United Kingdom government department responsible for food production and standards as well as environmental and agricultural responsibilities.

FDA:  Food and Drugs Administration.  The FDA is the name of a regulatory body in a number of countries, including USA, Philippines and India.

FSA: Food Standards Agency, a United Kingdom government regulatory body.

FSMA: Sometimes pronounced ‘Fizzmah’.  Stands for Food Safety Modernisation Act (United States of America).

FSSC 22000: A food safety management system standard similar to ISO 22000 but with extra requirements incorporated to meet the requirements of a GFSI standard.

FSVP:  Standards for Foreign Supplier Verification Program.  It is part of the requirements of the US Food Safety Modernisation Act and applies to US importers of food and their suppliers.

GFSI: Global Food Safety Initiative.  The GFSI is a group of food companies whose mission is to harmonize, strengthen, and improve food safety management systems around the globe.  The GFSI provides direction and approval to organizations that create food safety management systems, so a GFSI-approved food safety standard is one that represents international best practice.  Well known GFSI standards include BRC, FSSC 22000 and SQF.

GMO: Genetically Modified Organism.

HACCP:  HACCP is a set of principles designed to control and prevent food safety risks during food production.  The principles of HACCP are codified (written down) by the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO).  Download the 2020 revision of the HACCP Code here.

HARCP: Hazard Analysis Risk-based Preventive Control.  HARCP = food safety as legislated by the United States.  This acronymn being used by some in the USA when talking about the requirements of the recently enacted Food Safety Modernisation Act (FSMA) in that country.  HARCP is claimed to differ from HACCP by including requirements for preventive controls.  Read more about HARCP here.

IA: Intentional Adulteration.  Within the US Food Safety Modernisation Act (FSMA), Intentional Adulteration specifically refers to malicious adulteration that is intended to cause widescale harm.  Learn more about intentional adulteration here.

ISO 22000:  ISO is the International Organization for Standardization.  They have thousands of standards across many different businesses, products and systems.  ISO 22000 is the ISO standard for food safety management systems.  Like other major food safety management systems it is based on the principles of HACCP.

NSF:  a pseudo-government organization head-quartered in the United States that is active in the area of food safety and sanitation.

PCQI:  Preventive Controls Qualified Individual.  The name of the role held by an expert food safety professional who meets certain requirements under the (US) Food Safety Modernisation Act.

SQF:  Safe Quality Food Institute.  The Safe Quality Food Institute owns and publishes a group of food safety standards also known as SQF that is a GFSI – approved standard.

USP: United States Pharmacopeial Convention.  USP is a non-profit organization that creates identity and purity standards for food ingredients and food chemicals, as well as for medical drugs.

TACCP: Threat Assessment Critical Control Point.  TACCP = prevention of malicious threats to food.

VACCP: Vulnerability Assessment Critical Control Point.  VACCP = food fraud prevention.  Learn more about TACCP and VACCP here.

Learn about Vulnerability Assessments, what they are and how to do them, here.

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Filed Under: Learn

20th February 2023 by foodfraudadvisors

5 Food Fraud Trends to Look Out For in 2023

Our Principal Karen Constable has been following food fraud news since 2015.  Every week she personally reads, watches and listens to hundreds of articles, posts and journals about food fraud.

Here’s what she is predicting for food fraud for 2023:

  1. Organic fraud in USA – (a little) less likely
  2. Waste disposal fraud
  3. Document fraud as a new area of concern
  4. Sustainability claims ‘fraud’ – more likely
  5. Authenticity testing – improving

1) Organic fraud

Awareness of organic fraud has been increasing rapidly everywhere in the world. In the USA, that increased awareness has been accompanied by growing recognition of problems with the National Organic Program (NOP). These problems are related to enforcement and coverage.  The NOP includes standards that define what can and cannot be labelled as ‘organic’, and it requires that products meet certain requirements in order to carry the USDA Organic seal.

There were a number of multi-year, very high volume frauds in the organic grain sector in the USA that have been discovered and prosecuted in recent years, including one perpetrated with corn grown in the mid-West and fraud in imported ‘organic’ soybeans. With some of those large operations exposed, the amount of fraudulent ‘organic’ bulk commodities should be reduced in the USA. The prosecutions may act as a deterrent to other would-be perpetrators.

The NOP rules have been strengthened so that they will apply to imported commodities and importing companies like brokers and traders.  They also require that the organic status of bulk food in non-retail containers is correctly identified with respect to its organic status. There have also been updates related to the qualifications of organic inspectors and the rigour of on-site inspections.

Although the new rules are at least one year away, the market for organic commodities has been ‘put on notice’ and this should reduce the amount of organic food fraud in the USA.

organic produce pesticide authentic fruit vegetable

2) Waste disposal fraud

Waste disposal fraud has (probably) been happening for decades, but we are becoming more aware of the risks.  Waste fraud takes many forms but a typical scenario is one in which a food company contracts a waste company to securely destroy and dispose of goods that do not meet quality or safety parameters so that they cannot be diverted back to consumers.  However when fraud occurs, the waste company sells the sub-standard food, or otherwise allows it to return to consumers.

In one recent example, damaged jars of food were diverted back to the legitimate marketplace by the company that had promised to destroy them (and issued a disposal certificate to the brand owner).

This type of fraud is not new, but awareness of potential fraud in the waste supply chain has increased.  At the same time, food companies’ supplier approvals programs are more likely to include waste contractors than previously.  This means that there could be less waste disposal fraud than before (hopefully!)

 

3) Food safety document fraud (a bigger worry than we first thought?)

Document fraud is nothing new. It is a key element in many types of food fraud.  Falsified laboratory reports, fake organic certificates and even fake disposal declarations are all examples of document fraud.

In the context of food fraud, document fraud is most likely to support a profitable fraud, such as passing off conventional soybeans as ‘organic’ so they can be sold for a much higher price.

In ‘normal’ food frauds, then, the document fraud is just part of the package, and the documents do not directly make the food vulnerable.

There is one class of food, however, that has a special – and perhaps easily missed – food fraud vulnerability.  These are foods that are not usually thought of as ‘high risk’ for food fraud, but that rely on authentic/true documents for critical food safety criteria.

An example is ready-to-eat cold, cooked chicken purchased by a sandwich manufacturer.  A faked expiry date or falsified microbiological result on the certificate of analysis would place the sandwich company and its consumers at risk of serious consequences.  Because the faked, forged or falsified documents in that scenario provide subtle economic advantages to the supplier, this type of scenario could be considered food fraud.

Such vulnerabilities could easily slip through the net of traditional food fraud assessments. For suppliers whose economic circumstances are getting tougher, the motivation to perpetrate ‘minor’ document frauds like falsifying microbiological tests could be getting stronger, potentially increasing the likelihood of such frauds occurring.

 

4) Problematic sustainability claims

Claims about the sustainability credentials of foods are on the rise, as consumers increasingly value such claims.  Unfortunately, many green claims made about consumer goods have the potential to be misleading.

A United Kingdom government survey found 40 percent of such claims were problematic because of either non-accredited, own-brand logos; non-disclosure of environmentally harmful practices or ingredients; vague language; or lack of evidence to support claims such as ‘eco’, ‘sustainable’ and ‘natural’.

Vague claims and own-brand logos do not necessarily constitute food fraud, however food businesses need to be careful about the integrity of the data they use to support claims they intend to make about their products or operations.

Claims about carbon neutrality, carbon net-zero and greenhouse gas emissions reductions need to be evidenced using data from the whole supply chain.  This is where food companies can be vulnerable.

If a food company’s supplier provides incorrect data related to the carbon footprint of the material or service being purchased, the outcome of any emissions calculations done by the purchasing company will be incorrect.  The result?  The food company could be guilty of accidentally misrepresenting its sustainability status.

Other fraud pitfalls for food companies include fraudulent certification schemes and logos used by their suppliers, and errors in interpreting or complying with the varying green claim regulations in different markets.

Read more about the risks that come with carbon-neutral claims in Issue 61 of Karen’s newsletter The Rotten Apple and about consumers’ confusion with sustainable seafood claims in Issue 63.

 

5) Authenticity testing – more accessible, better expertise

Laboratories continue to improve their authenticity testing services to support medium-sized food businesses with food fraud detection. The level of food fraud knowledge and expertise in the food testing industry is getting better and more tests are becoming available.

The Food Authenticity Network’s (FAN) Centres of Expertise Program is making valuable contributions to the expertise and accessibility of food fraud tests.  A FAN centre of expertise is a laboratory or academic institution with expertise in one or more types of authenticity tests.

 

This article originally appeared in The Rotten Apple newsletter on 20th February 2023.

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Filed Under: Food Fraud

26th June 2022 by foodfraudadvisors

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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Filed Under: Food Fraud, Learn, Vulnerability Assessments

14th September 2021 by Karen Constable

How To Do a Vulnerability Assessment for Food Fraud

Updated 30th December 2022

What is a vulnerability assessment?

 

A vulnerability assessment is a risk-assessment-style evaluation of a food’s vulnerability to food fraud.

A food fraud vulnerability assessment is a documented assessment that identifies vulnerabilities to food fraud and explains how those vulnerabilities were identified.

Vulnerability assessments are also done to assess the threat of a malicious attack on food.  Malicious attacks include attacks conducted for extortion, ideological reasons or terrorism. We call these issues of food defense. To learn more about vulnerability assessments for food defense (intentional adulteration), click here.

Why ‘vulnerability’ and not ‘risk’? 

 

  • A risk is something that has occurred before and will occur again. A risk can be quantified using existing data.
  • A vulnerability is a weakness that can be exploited.  A vulnerability can lead to a risk.

Food fraud is difficult to estimate and quantify, so we use the word vulnerability rather than risk.

Why do a vulnerability assessment?

 

  1. To protect consumers: Food that is vulnerable to food fraud presents significant risks to consumers.  Food that is adulterated or diluted   [Read more…]

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Filed Under: Food Fraud, Learn, VACCP, Vulnerability Assessments

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