• Home
  • About Us
  • Our Services
  • Tools, Templates and Training
  • Learn about food fraud
  • Report a food crime
  • News
You are here: Home / Crisis Management / Letter from Thailand – food fraud, food safety, food excellence

10th June 2017 by Karen Constable

Letter from Thailand – food fraud, food safety, food excellence

The World of Food Safety Conference was held in Bangkok in conjunction with THAIFEX in early June 2017.  Delegates represented large and medium sized food businesses in South East Asia as well as government and trade organisations.  Thai, Singaporean, Malaysian and Myanmar delegates dominated the group.  The attendees were hungry for knowledge about food fraud and food fraud prevention; almost 50% of the topics across the two-day conference were related to food fraud, traceability, supply chain management and crisis management.

As well as speaking about recent trends and developments in food fraud, I enjoyed learning from the other speakers, sampling the wonders of THAIFEX and enjoying Thai food which was truly excellent.

Karen Constable spoke about Food Fraud at World of Food Safety Conference

 

Background checks as an aid to fraud mitigation

I was lucky to gain some fantastic insights into the intricacies and challenges of performing background checks on business people in Asia from Jingyi Li Blank,  Mintz Group.  Background checks on business owners are a great way to understand vulnerabilities to food fraud when seeking new suppliers or investigating sources of new raw materials.  South East Asia and China present some challenges for companies performing background checks, including the way that people in the area often have multiple spellings and versions of their names, as well as issues related to cross-border jurisdictions.

Prevalence of food fraud prevention systems

Julia Leong from PricewaterhouseCoopers shared some statistics on current levels of compliance among food companies who have interracted with the PwC SSAFE tool: 41% of companies have no systems to detect or monitor fraud, 36% have no whistle-blowing systems and 38% do not perform background checks on employees. Food businesses that neglect these areas are exposing themselves to serious financial risks from food fraud.

Support for food businesses in developing countries from GFSI

It was heartening to hear about the new program being launched by the Global Food Safety Initiative (GFSI) in developing countries.  The Global Markets Program is designed to bridge the gap between food operations with no formal food safety systems and those who have GFSI-endorsed certification by helping companies to develop food safety management systems through a process of continuous improvement.  Within the program, manufacturing support systems related to hygiene and other basic principles of food safety are implemented progressively over a defined time period as the companies work to attain either a basic or intermediate level of compliance.  The results are not accredited but become the foundation for further improvements so that the business can work towards implementing a complete food safety program.

Sustainability in the food supply chain; palm oil and coconut oil

Matthew Kovac of Food Industry Asia presented on behalf of Cargill, providing a fascinating introduction to the sustainability programs Cargill has introduced in their palm oil and coconut oil supply chains.  Cargill is a major grower, purchaser and refiner of palm oil and are aiming for a 100% sustainable target by 2020.   For Cargill, sustainability in palm oil means:

  • No deforestation of high value areas
  • No development on peat (burning beat causes air pollution and contributes to climate change)
  • No exploitation of indigenous peoples
  • Inclusion of small land holders

Coconut oil sustainability is being improved in conjunction with The Rainforest Alliance, by providing training and support for Filipino growers so that they can increase their yields, as well as providing them with access to wood fired dryers that allow the growers to produce copra that has better colour, less aflatoxins, less environmental contaminants and lower free fatty acids than traditionally sun-dried copra.

The many and varied hazards in HACCP for fish

It was both fascinating and scary to be reminded of the hazards to food safety from fresh fin fish by Preeya Ponbamrung, from Handy International: pathogenic bacteria, viruses, biotoxins such as ciguatera, biogenic amines (histamine being the most common), parasites and chemicals such as water pollutants and antibiotics used in aquaculture.  That’s quite a hazard list; it was heartening to hear Ms Ponbamrung describe the control methods employed by the fish processing industry to keep those hazards out of our food supply.

Crisis communications; winners and losers

We learnt about successful methods – and not-so-successful-methods – that food companies use to communicate food safety and food fraud risks to consumers.  Nestle was applauded for its fast, clear and practical response to reports of counterfeit versions of its popular MILO chocolate drink powder in Malaysia.  The brand owner promptly published instructions for consumers on social media and in the local press explaining how to tell the difference between the fake and the real product.

Image: MILO Malaysia Facebook, March 2015

 

Some other companies do not do so well with crisis communications.  Cesare Varallo of Inscatech, showed us that the public communications of Chipotle in the USA about its food safety problems were less than ideal.  The brand has suffered serious losses and it has been reported that 13% of its former customers say they will never return.  Time is of the essence in a food safety or food fraud crisis.  Does your company have a crisis plan?

Want to know more about any of these topics?  Get in touch with us, we love to help.

Share this:

  • Facebook
  • Twitter
  • LinkedIn
  • Email

Filed Under: Crisis Management, Food Fraud, Supply Chain Tagged With: China, food fraud consultant, food safety, GFSI, integrity, supply chain, sustainability, transparency

MORE FROM FOOD FRAUD ADVISORS

Food Fraud in Food Additives

Food additives such as flavour-enhancers, gums, enzymes, emulsifiers, stabilizers, anti-caking agents, anti-oxidants and … [Read More...]

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 … [Read More...]

food vulnerability assessment

Food Safety Standards Compared (2022)

    When it comes to food fraud, each food safety standard has slightly different food fraud … [Read More...]

Investigating Susceptibility to Food Fraud

Updated 26th June 2022 Some foods are more susceptible than others to economically motivated adulteration, … [Read More...]

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, … [Read More...]

follow

  • View foodfraudadvice’s profile on Facebook
  • View karenconstable4’s profile on Twitter
  • LinkedIn

© Copyright 2015 - 2022 Food Fraud Advisors · All Rights Reserved · Privacy Policy