Alchemy Systems and the U.S. Pharmacopeial Convention (USP) recently announced a groundbreaking collaboration that enables food companies of all sizes to assess supply chain risk and build robust systems to minimize food fraud.

Alchemy Systems provides food safety programs that have been implemented at over 25,000 facilities in 50 countries. USP’s Food Fraud Database is a comprehensive source of information on food fraud risk for thousands of ingredients.

“Food companies have struggled to keep up with food adulteration risks inherent in an increasingly global ingredient supply,” says Jeff Eastman, Alchemy’s CEO. “We are delighted to combine Alchemy’s Food Fraud Risk Assessment and Mitigation services with USP’s Food Fraud Database and food fraud expertise so that companies can better protect their supply chains, meet regulations, and safeguard their brands.”

USP’s Food Fraud Database can be used to identify which ingredients have a known history of adulterations including incident reports, inference reports, surveillance records, and analytical methods. USP searches, compiles, and performs quality control checks on data gathered daily from scientific literature, media publications, regulatory and judicial records and trade associations from around the globe. USP’s Food Fraud Mitigation Guidance provides a framework to assess ingredient vulnerability, the associated risk, and develop food fraud mitigation plans.

“The Alchemy-USP collaboration will enable companies to prioritize fraud risks down to the ingredient level so they can protect their product and brand reputation,” says Jeff Chilton, Alchemy’s vice president of professional services.

Alchemy works with food manufacturers following the Global Food Safety Initiative (GFSI) standards including SQF, BRC, and FSC 22000 certifications which all require robust food fraud protections.