Food Fraud

         Food fraud: 
                             The "fake" food

Food fraud is most commonly referred to as the intentional defrauding of food and food ingredients for economic gain. Food fraud is estimated to cost the global food industry $10-$15 billion a year.

Some producers deceive consumers, manufactures, retailers, and governments for the sole purpose of making money. Many consumers are not interested in how the food they consume is produced or where it comes from but are more concerned about being able to purchase food inexpensively. The lack of interest and knowledge by the consumer increases the risk of food fraud by producers and manufacturers who are solely interested in making a big profit.

Food fraud can occur in a variety of situations. Food or food ingredients may be substituted for lower-quality, inferior ingredients, or one species for another. Food ingredients may be diluted with water, or main ingredients may be omitted or removed.

Over the past couple of years, there have been several reported food fraud incidents. In 2013, consumers in England, France, Greece and several other countries were duped and unknowingly purchased meatballs, burgers and other food products that contained horse meat. The suppliers of the products were aware that their products contained horse meat, but instead of declaring it on the product labels, the suppliers saw an opportunity to make money and deceive their consumers who thought they were buying beef.

Food fraud is committed when food is deliberately placed on the market, for financial gain, with the intention of deceiving the consumer. Although there are many kinds of food fraud the two main types are:

•    the sale of food which is unfit and potentially harmful, such as:
o    recycling of animal by-products back into the food chain
o    packing and selling of beef and poultry with an unknown origin
o    knowingly selling goods which are past their 'use by' date
•    the deliberate misdescription of food, such as:
o    products substituted with a cheaper alternative, for example, farmed salmon sold as wild, and Basmati rice adulterated with cheaper varieties
o    making false statements about the source of ingredients, i.e. their geographic, plant or animal origin

Food fraud may also involve the sale of meat from animals that have been stolen and/or illegally slaughtered, as well as wild game animals like deer that may have been poached.
The importance to control each aspect of Quality is to be able to deliver fresh and safety food daily, without a microbiological contamination or chemical one, biological contamination or adulteration or sophistication of foods.

Because if the impact of problem is considerd from an econimic point of view, the state has got a massime impact on the society; in fact Food fraud costs Uk foods and manifacturing a whopping £ 11.2 bilion a year.

Several food and drinks that are sold every day are manipolated and it has delivered as Food Fraud.
The report suggests that fraud occurs at every stage of the supply chain, with suppliers, producers and retailers substituting ingredients, such as donkey for beef or horse for chicken. They also claim food is organic when it isn’t and packaging often exaggerates the weight of food it contains.

Researchers found lower grade flour than advertised used to make bread and fillers such as chalk are added. Claiming a chicken is free range when it has spent its life in a cage is another way of hiking up prices. Other types of fraud include using cheap cheese substitutes on pizzas or charging high prices for honey wrongly labelled as ‘manuka‘.



As a result, food costs far more than it should. The consumer ultimately pays for this fraud. It is estimated that it contributes on average 5p to the cost of a £1 loaf of white bread, 11p to a £2 box of half a dozen eggs, and 10p for potatoes costing £1.75.

Food fraud has been on the political agenda for some time, particularly after last year’s horse meat scandal, which caused an international outcry. In response, the government has promised to set up a national food crime unit to protect the industry from organised criminal gangs, who see food fraud as more lucrative than trafficking drugs, and who face lighter sentences if caught.