Time: 14.00 to 15.00
The prevention of food fraud is paramount to protect the trust of our consumers and to maintain fair, sustainable business practices. No process can guarantee that food and food supply are not the target of criminal activity. This session, presented by food safety expert, Environmental Health Practitioner (EHP) and CIEH trustee Sterling Crew, aims to outline approaches and processes to improve the resilience of supply chains to food fraud.
Food fraud can harm consumers through illness and even death. One example dates from 2008 when melamine was used as a nitrogen source to fraudulently increase the measured protein content of baby milk produced in China, which led to more than 50,000 babies being hospitalised and six deaths after consumption of contaminated infant formula.
Food fraud is an age old problem that reoccurs periodically in global food supply chains. Since the global horsemeat scandal of 2013, where beef products were adulterated with horsemeat, there is world-wide consensus that as well as being better at detecting food fraud, more needs to be done to prevent food fraud from happening in the first place.
This session will look at:
- the common factors in many recent cases
- how to assure the authenticity of food by minimising vulnerability to fraud
- selected risk mitigation measures aimed at preventing food fraud in a given supply chain
The session will also look at the role played by the Food Authenticity Network (an open access website that brings together global information on food authenticity testing, food fraud mitigation and food supply chain integrity in one convenient location).
Who should attend
- EHPs involved in Food Control
- Students on Environmental Health undergraduate and postgraduate study courses
- Public Health professionals with an interest in this area
- Food businesses concerned about food fraud
