“Food fraud” is a collective term encompassing the deliberate and intentional substitution, addition, tampering or misrepresentation of food, food ingredients or food packaging, labeling or product information, or false/misleading statements made about a product for economic gain. Recent global food fraud scandals have highlighted the need to strengthen companies’ ability to detect and mitigate the risks of food fraud within their organizations and across their supply chain. Authorities, consumers and other stakeholders expect food companies to proactively mitigate food fraud risks. However, current food safety management systems are not designed for food fraud mitigation, which requires a different perspective and skill set than either food safety or food defense. For instance, socioeconomic issues and past food fraud incidents are not included in traditional food safety or food defense risk assessments and are not generally part of any current food safety audit. Vulnerabilities to food fraud can also occur outside the traditional activities of a company.
The risks to food safety have never been higher. While food fraud is not new, the motivation to adulterate or counterfeit food for financial gain is growing, and thus new solutions are needed. While current food safety management systems are not always designed for fraud detection or mitigation, new food safety guidelines require it. That is why SSAFE (see “SSAFE: An Important Food Safety Partner”) created a free fraud vulnerability assessment tool that companies can use to help identify vulnerabilities to food fraud threats. This is an industry-led solution that can help meet the new requirements for food fraud mitigation set out in the Consumer Goods Forum’s Global Food Safety Initiative (GFSI). SSAFE worked with Wageningen University, VU University Amsterdam, PricewaterhouseCoopers (PwC) and food industry leaders worldwide to help put the global food supply industry in a stronger position to fight fraud and provide a basis to develop company-specific intervention strategies.
This science-based tool is based on the study of criminal behavior and decision making. It’s structured into two parts. The first examines the elements affecting criminal behavior, while the second relates to a company and its external relationships and environment (such as suppliers). The assessment is easy to use and can be applied anywhere in the food supply chain, from animal feed and primary production to manufacturing and catering. It applies fraud theory to support the identification of vulnerabilities in the food supply chain. There are three main elements—opportunities, motivations and absence of fraud control measures—that are believed to determine a company’s vulnerability to food fraud and make up the focus of the assessment. “Opportunities” and “motivations” are determined by the company’s internal and external environment and are defined as potential fraud risk factors. The potential risk resulting from these two elements can be mitigated by the third element, the “fraud control measures” that companies implement to detect or prevent fraud.
Specifically, the following types of food fraud (Figure 1) considered in this tool are:
• Mislabeling, the process of placing false claims on packaging for economic gain
• Dilution, the process of mixing a liquid ingredient with high value with a liquid of lower value
• Concealment, the process of hiding the low quality of food ingredients or a product
• Counterfeiting, the process of copying the brand name, packaging concept, recipe, processing method, etc. of food products for economic gain
• Substitution, the process of replacing a high-value ingredient or part of the product with a lower-value one
• Unapproved enhancement, the process of adding unknown and undeclared materials to food products to enhance their quality attributes
• Gray-market production/theft/diversion, which is the sale of excess, unreported product, resulting in loss of royalties or payments to the brand
Ready to Get Started?
If so, then there are a few things you should know:
• The tool is free to use for any company. Go online (www.pwc.com/foodfraud), download the app or use the spreadsheet to complete our 50 assessment questions.
• You can use the tool to assess your vulnerability to fraud at an ingredient, product, brand, facility, country or company-wide level (Figure 2). If you want help deciding where to apply the tool in your organization, complete the decision tree.
• The online tool is easy to use and you have the option to delegate responsibility for completing specific questions to different colleagues and departments to ensure its smooth completion by the right people, no matter how big or small your organization.
• Once completed, and depending on how you decided to apply the tool, the assessment will produce a profile of your company’s potential food fraud vulnerability, which can form the basis for developing interventions to mitigate identified vulnerabilities, as well as assessing potential risk to the enterprise.
• The assessment doesn’t give specific recommendations for mitigation techniques, but it does provide links to useful guidance on how and where to find solutions. It is not designed to detect fraud or predict future food fraud incidents. Yet, addressing vulnerabilities may identify fraud and give you the opportunity to stop criminal activity.
• You can use this tool as part of your food safety management system—remember, fraud vulnerabilities change over time, so use it regularly.
• At the end of the assessment, you’ll get a report that can be added to your food safety documentation that includes spiderweb graphics illustrating and identifying potentially high-risk areas of vulnerability. The outputs will enable you to prepare mitigation strategies and techniques, including the introduction of additional controls for reducing your food fraud risks.
• Responses to the assessment remain confidential to the company carrying out the assessment. It is important to note that respondents and their organizations are not identifiable from the online information recorded. All identifiable data are deleted at the end of your assessment, and all remaining data are aggregated to support general benchmarking and research to continue improving the tool and provide additional feedback to the industry.
SSAFE: An Important Food Safety Partner
In 2004, the avian influenza crisis revealed the impact that animal and health issues can have on the global food chain. To effectively address this threat, industry partners and intergovernmental organizations came together to promote the integrity of the global food system and rapidly respond. SSAFE was born! Formally incorporated as a nonprofit membership organization in August 2006, SSAFE now extends beyond the original scope of work. Today, SSAFE continues to foster the improvement of internationally recognized food protection systems and standards through public-private partnerships. By integrating food safety, animal health and plant health across the global food system, SSAFE is working to improve public health and well-being. What makes SSAFE unique is its focus on driving collaboration between the public and private sectors to enhance the integrity of the food supply worldwide.