Food fraud on FoodQualityNews agenda

The free-to-register discussion will look at risks industry faces throughout the supply chain from those making the ingredients to the retailer selling the final product and how tools such as horizon scanning can help.

There is also the opportunity to ask questions to our panel, so take the chance to pick the brains of the people on the ground in the daily battle against food fraud.  

Adulteration of food could be due to supply issues, economic motives or criminal activity and as well as hurting the pockets, it has the potential to affect public health.

Michael Walker, consultant, Public Analyst at the Lab of the Government Chemist, John Spink, director and assistant professor Food Fraud Initiative at Michigan State University, Paul Brereton, Head of Food and Health Research at Food and Environment Research Agency (FERA) and Christopher Van Gundy, Partner at Keller and Heckman LLP will be present.

Speakers key topics ​

The event, which is free to listen to, will start at 10am New York time, 3pm London and 4pm Paris (see details here​).

Walker will speak about the Elliott review and Spink will take up the parallels in the USA.

Brereton will explain the Food Integrity project and Van Gundy will talk about olive oil as part of larger supply chain issue and make the case that food authenticity is connected to food safety.

Food fraud has been a hot topic for industry brought to the forefront by the horse meat scandal but was a well-known phenomenon before that incident. 

Food fraud issues​

The EU Food Fraud Network (FFN), created in July 2013 following the horse meat furore, recently reported meat products were the category of foodstuffs for the majority of exchanges​.

This was followed by fish products and honey, according to a 2014 report which included 60 cases.

The nuts and spices issue, which has seen products such as cumin and paprika recalled due to peanut and almond protein findings​, remains on the border between being a food fraud issue or an accidental contamination problem.

Equipment manufacturers such as Bruker with its FoodScreener module, Instant Labs’ line of DNA tests for seafood and PerkinElmer software to detect known and unknown contaminants are trying to give industry the tools to protect products.

A plethora of research has been done around the topic and especially on consumer confidence and the role of social media for brands to connect with customers and vice-versa. 

So join us on the day, on Twitter using the hashtag #foodfraud15 or you can register for free and listen on-demand to what the experts have to say.