FOOD FRAUD

Food fraud is deceiving to obtaining a benefit from food. There are different types of food fraud, like the following:

• Ingredients: by adding, substituting and adjusting; forgery of any ingredient to reduce cot or improve a feature.
• A false or misleading statement: to state a benefit or feature or origin in a label that’s not included.

Fraud is a criminal activity due to financial motivations, as organizations, we shall prepare control measures enabling us to reduce impact when we’re involved in a fraud.

To deem food fraud vulnerability, we consider 3 factors: opportunities, motivations, and not suitable or none control actions, which we could illustrate as follows:

Opportunities + motivations-control measures

= vulnerability

Opportunities:

You shall consider if your product passes through a big sales chain, in which some incidence may occur, as a control action, we shall purchase from known distributors or brand representatives who have better handling.

Motivations:

If the product is on-trend due to origin, composition, characteristics and high demand. You shall guarantee the supply chain controls of the product. Any probable lucrative motivator could be presented.

Control actions:

Actions were taken to control opportunities and motives that may be presented within the supply chain, like the following:

• Raw material supplier’s analysis certificate;
• Supplier’s raw material (and an identity analysis);
• Supply chain audits;
• Safety and policy seals of raw material input and output;
• Better processes for approving suppliers;
• A balance test of mass carried out at the supplier’s facilities of raw material and adulterated products;
• Supply chain changes, for example, a supplier or shorter change;

After adding up the most motivating opportunities, fewer control measures, we will find the vulnerability.

The vulnerability is different for each raw material since each one goes through a different process and control. To constantly review the official pages about a product recall, it could help to determine if control actions are suitable or if something must change to reanalyze the product. Let’s consider buying products from origin or authorized distributor will give us a guarantee, to conduct supplier’s audits and even an identity analysis of raw material to ensure that the product is as specified.

Therefore, we will try to minimize future vulnerability, when we prepare food and straighten the supplies chain.