I am currently working on creating a Food Fraud Mitigation Plan (SQF 2.7) for the company I work for. We purchase many raw ingredients that have a history of food fraud (spices, oils, fruit juices, and honey). We are a smaller company, so I am not sure how sending raw ingredients off to a lab for authenticity testing would fit into our budget. My question is, is lab testing really necessary for a Food Fraud Mitigation Plan? Probably about 95% of our raw ingredient suppliers have a long-standing relationship with us and we do have a supplier approval program. I have read article after article on food fraud mitigation and I am still unsure if we will get dinged for not sending product out for testing.
Does anyone have an example of steps their company takes to help mitigate food fraud? So far I have:
-Require suppliers be audited by a 3rd party (GFSI)
-Require documentation (COA, COO, Spec Sheet, etc.) from suppliers
-Use only approved suppliers
-Source ingredients from domestic (U.S.) suppliers when at all possible
-Ensure packaging is intact and does not appear to be tampered with upon arrival
Any guidance would be greatly appreciated.
Thank you