Food Fraud: when it’s too good to be true..
Food Fraud: an old but disturbingly topical subject
A big “eye opener” in terms of food fraud in Europe was the horse meat scandal. The European Union then took some decisions in order to tackle this problem more firmly. Nevertheless, they could not avoid the Fipronil eggs and a new meat scandal (in Belgium). Other cases are bound to follow...
“Food fraud” is a broad concept. It includes various phenomena such as the increasing, reducing, replacing or disguising of ingredients, the mislabelling or counterfeiting of products. An important aspect of food fraud is that it is done consciously and intentionally in order to gain economic profit from it. The consequences are not insignificant: the consumer was misled, confidence was lost, there was unfair competition and reputation damage... Certain foods are more susceptible to fraud, such as olive oil, fish and meat. But other products can also be the subject of fraud.
3 tips!
Food Fraud plan & team
Similar to Food Defense (which also has a deliberate character), it is important that the top of the organisation is involved in the preparation and rollout of the food fraud plan. The team that concretely works out the plan should be multidisciplinary with employees specialised in quality, purchasing, logistics...
Insight into the entire chain
Mapping out the entire chain of raw material suppliers is important because this is where potential fraud mainly happens. Information collection and a good vulnerability analysis are the cornerstones of the approach. Various tools are available.
(Source: "Food fraud", Eveline Notebaert, Q-support - die Keure)
Crisis management as a guiding principle
A good crisis management organisation within the company can also be used as a steppingstone for the food fraud plan (in addition to HACCP, recall, disasters, Food Defense, etc.). This results in a proven, coordinated and unambiguous approach to serious incidents, which is time and management efficient.
Food Security helps its members by:
Choosing “Food fraud” as the subject for our Annual Members' Meeting of 2019. The meeting will take place on 10/10/19 in Grimbergen. Register now!
Launching a contact point for members where their employees can leave an anonymous message about food safety and product integrity.
Helping to set up a good crisis management organisation within your company by training teams through various training courses for crisis teams and first line employees.
Learning points
How is your company’s Food Defense?
Securing your residence is a given, but securing the workplace comes less naturally. Our practical experience at food companies confirms this.
First aid for consumer complaints
When receiving a sensitive consumer complaint, a swift response is key. Proper complaint management directly affects consumer confidence in your brand and products.
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