The Food Fraud Vulnerability Assessment tool (FFVA) was developed by SSAFE with PricewaterhouseCoopers (PwC), Wageningen University, VU University Amsterdam and nine multinational companies.
SSAFE conceptualised and developed the vulnerability assessment with its food industry partners.
It does not provide specific mitigation techniques, detect fraud or predict future incidents, but it does provide guidance on how and where to find solutions.
Authorities, consumers and others require industry to react proactively to the possibility of food fraud. However, current systems are not capable of meeting this expectation, said the tools developers.
Output at the end of the assessment is a report that can be added to food safety documentation.
Types of vulnerability
Hans Schoolderman, partner at PwC and European leader Food Integrity Services, said SSAFE approached it at the GFSC in Kuala Lumpur last year and invited the firm to become the global roll-out partner.
“We were initially involved in the stakeholder consultation meeting in October 2014 and were asked to provide feedback on initial drafts," he told FoodQualityNews.
“The tool is interactive, it allows you to allocate tasks to different people in the company as you might have multiple brands or ingredients, so you can get a separate assessment of the businesses with different people involved.
“Vulnerabilities include mislabelling, so labels with the wrong date, dilution such as watered down products, counterfeiting, substitution and unapproved enhancements such as Melamine being added to enhance the protein value.”
Schoolderman said a pilot is being prepared with FSSC 22000 and 10-15 companies to test the tool and share feedback.
The FFVA tool consists of more than fifty questions that determine the vulnerability of a company based on the study of criminal behaviour and decision making.
It can be applied across the food supply chain to assess any ingredient, product or facility for vulnerabilities to fraud; irrespective of the type of company, its size or geographic location.
How to measure vulnerability
Questions concern opportunities (suitable target), motivations (motivated offender) and monitoring measures. They are directed at suppliers and the company, buyers, the supply chain network and the broader external environment.
“The opportunities section includes 11 indicators related to product and process characteristics and historical evidence of fraud with particular food products and ingredients,” said Schoolderman.
“In the motivations section there are 20 indicators and these are also sub-divided. The control measures part contains 19 indicators and there are different categories of answer based on how sure or unsure you are.”
Using food as a pawn to make money
Quincy Lissaur, SSAFE executive director, said recent incidents have increased the need to strengthen industry’s ability to detect and combat fraud across food supply chains.
“By developing this free tool we hope to help strengthen companies’ internal controls while reducing opportunities to adulterate food for economic gain.
“By clearly understanding the conditions and situations that provide fraudsters with opportunities, companies can target resources and actions to detect and prevent food fraud before affected products reach consumers.”
PwC research has found more than one in three organisations are victimised by fraud.
Craig Armitage, PwC’s global leader of food supply and integrity services, said current food safety practices are not always designed for fraud mitigation.
“Beyond the economic cost, food fraud can harm public health and damage consumer trust. Food frauds, such as horse meat being passed off as minced beef or the addition of melamine in dairy, have increased the urgency with which the food industry is taking action.”
SSAFE and PwC’s tool comes ahead of the Consumer Goods Forum’s Global Food Safety Initiative (GFSI) adding two requirements to its guidance document Version 7 (to be published soon).
These elements will require a company to conduct a food fraud vulnerability assessment and implement a control plan in accordance with the assessment.
Armitage said the global food industry is calling time on fraud.
“Food may be about taste and nutrition for most of us, but for fraudsters it’s always about using food as a pawn to make easy money. We hope to help food companies strike at the heart of this motivation so fraudsters are less willing and less able to profit from food fraud.”
The tool is free to download at www.pwc.com/foodfraud. It will soon be available on Apple’s App Store or Google Play.