Food fraud can be very local
It’s easy to think that the greatest risk of food fraud lies in complex, global supply chains involving known higher risk countries. However, recent issues around the fraudulent provenance of meat are stark reminders that food fraud can be very local. The industry has put in significant efforts since ‘horsegate’ to challenge and improve the confidence in supply chains. Yet with rising inflationary pressures and continuing availability challenges, around both ingredients and staff, the risk of food fraud is ever increasing. Even when issues are discovered, it can still take many months for investigations to be completed and outcomes made public.
A ‘British’ meat claim is a powerful statement and often an expectation of many consumers.  When one supplier is found to be failing, the whole of the industry can be brought into question again and it always makes a strong & emotive headline. The potential scale & duration of the recent issues (as described in the recent trade press) is alarming.
Top tips for protecting your product integrity claims
Here’s our advice for carrying out a raw material vulnerability assessment to protect your product integrity claims:
- Don’t make assumptions that local means less risk! Don’t be complacent!
- Think ‘hand on heart’ how can I prove this raw material is what it’s supposed to be? How comfortable do you and your customer base feel with the level of due diligence achieved?
- Consider the potential impact of a false claim on both your customer/consumer and your brand, this could range from minor to catastrophic, as recently seen.
- Focus on the likelihood of detection – if a science-based test or obvious organoleptic characteristic isn’t available/feasible then we need to put much more emphasis on supply chain controls. Which steps in the supply chain hold greatest risk and how, plus how often, will you challenge your controls?
- Flex the frequency of your supply chain verification challenges based on what you learn for your monitoring and horizon scanning – keep it live and dynamic.
- Share information and collaborate – greater supply chain and industry collaboration can enable much quicker reactions and higher levels of consumer protection.
Other questions to ask…
Prepare to explain and justify your controls:
- Why are you doing what you’re doing?
- Can you do more?
- Do you need to do more, based on risk?
Keep it risk-based or you could spend your entire testing budget and learn very little!
There are still many claims that we don’t have an absolute detection method for, typically provenance in many cases. Believing bits of paper has caught us out before; there’s no substitute for conducting ‘eyes on’ integrity audits, getting into the factory quickly, and trusting your gut feel.
Want to know more about Food Defence? We have many courses for different levels of your business. For more information, please go to our courses or our blogs.
