What can be done to prevent determined food fraud?

Although the UK Horsemeat scandal has been deemed food fraud and not a food safety issue; it is definitely of interest to those in the food safety & quality field. Food security and defence is an element of a modern Food Safety Management Systems, but does it or can its scope cover food fraud.

What can we do to prevent determined food fraud?

Q&A: Horsemeat scandal

Regards,
Simon

Simon,

I don't like saying this, but if a group of people are committed to perpetrating a fraud, it could be very hard to catch. It couldn't be a one-off or a single person doing this, IMO, but a group who want to bypass the rules and regulations that have been set up.

Those people make the job of food safety and food security even harder for those of us (people and companies) wanting to do the right thing. The act of bypassing the rules, brings down tighter regulation on us all.

My early thoughts,
Setanta

Agreed. Compare this scenario to life in general, and we find it's nearly impossible to stop a determined criminal with laws in place. If laws alone were effective in prevention, there would be no robbery, rape or murder in the world. Same applies to the food industry, that when an individual or a company becomes committed to an unacceptable practice, the law itself will not be effective in prevention. Enforcement can stop the illegal acts after they occur, they can cite and fine the guilty, but true prevention isn't possible unless we remove the human factor.

Totally agree with the above

If i would choose to commit fraude, i would make sure that it is hard to find out

So this is why i don't think the current "witch hunting" approach by most UK retailers at the moment. I now have to fill in questionaires, but if we would commit fraude i would made sure all filled in questions are correct.

Another thing i don't understand is that tracing back the horse meat is so difficult....i mean if one is BRC or IFS certified, the traceability is a big issue and is seriously audited against (and for a reason).

So the biggest question: are the suspicious plants certified or not ?

Dear All,

Regarding ease of traceability, I have no idea on relevant meat legislation but i just noticed these curious / interesting comments -

http://www.reuters.c...E91C0LH20130213

http://www.eppgroup....&prcontentlg=en

Rgds / Charles.C

This made it on to the front page of CNN.com today ... kind of a known issue already, but at least there's a bit of media coverage here.

Full Story: http://eatocracy.cnn...tudy/?hpt=hp_c3

Nationwide study casts a wide net over seafood fraud

Mislabeled fish is flooding the marketplace and Americans may be swallowing it hook, line and sinker, according to a new study by an environmental activist group.

A look at seafood sales across the country by ocean conservation group Oceana found that roughly one third of the time, seafood sold at U.S. grocery stores, seafood markets, restaurants and sushi venues had been swapped for species that are cheaper, overfished, or risky to eat.

Beth Lowell, campaign director for Oceana, told CNN that the study was conducted over the course of two years and encompassed retail outlets in major metropolitan areas across 21 states. Staff and supporters of the organization purchased 1,247 pieces of fish and submitted samples to a lab for DNA testing to determine if the species matched the in-store menu or label in accordance with Food and Drug Administration naming guidelines.

Out of the 1,215 samples that were eventually tested, 401 were determined to be mislabeled.

They completely lost me now...........when will common scence come back?

Tesco has promised to buy more meat from the UK and install cameras at its suppliers' factories in an attempt to prevent another horsemeat-style scandal.read the full article here

I don't see how market protectionism will help ...and what with the privacy of installing camera's ?

And it is not even a food safety issue ......