Tips for Food Fraud Prevention

Posted by Charles Wilson on November 23rd, 2022

Food defense is the safety of food products from deliberate contamination or adulteration, as well as biological, chemical, physical or radiological agents. It addresses other concerns with physical, personnel and operational security. A food defense program is usually apparent as a program that contains site security, visitors control or even on-site people monitoring. However, with the new FSMA Preventive Controls Rules and GFSI Guidance for all the familiar schemes, extra to customer demand on product transparency.

What is food fraud?

Food fraud is a communal term used to include the careful and intentional substitution, addition, tampering or misrepresentation of food, food ingredients or food packaging, or false deceptive statements made about a product, for economic gain. It becomes not just a possible for food safety problems, but also a severe problem that could potentially damage brand reputation. It is hence grave to have appropriate protection and prevention.

What does this mean to food manufacturers?

The awareness of traceability and transparency positively should rise. Most services should have a food defense program in place to obey with any GMP requirements. To make it more capable for food fraud, here are some quick tips for food fraud prevention:

Review complete supply chain one more time, considering fraud risks: The unknown could possibly hurt program. Be aware of what might go wrong before it goes wrong, which is why an appraisal should be one of the main steps in food safety. It might be a familiar terminology in the industry; however, it could not remove its importance to entire food safety management system. To maintain product genuineness, understanding where ingredients come from and who is business partners and suppliers are become the first step to success. It also gives a brilliant opportunity to analyze the risks and potential risk sources. A thorough review should contain all the approved suppliers and vendor information. Knowing the source of product delivers with a good foundation for food defense.

Use HACCP concept for food fraud risk analysis within supply chain: Hazard Analysis Critical Control Point (HACCP), as well-defined by FDA, is a management system in which food safety is ensured by addressing through the analysis and control of biological, chemical and physical hazards throughout the complete supply chain. HACCP documents can be used very efficiently for educating vendors, employees, management, and food safety groups for the establishment of a food safety management system. This mentality of HACCP could be used and very helpful to examine the potential fraud risks. Its seven principles and 12 steps could be implemented to identify fraud risks. And it is significant to identify the hazards from potentially adulterated ingredients to determine the next step for what desires to be controlled.

Double-check incoming goods: The importance of vulnerability assessments to stop food fraud with any documentation suppliers have provided. Yes, it is critical; however, as one of the significant steps in the HACCP program, verification is also significant to make sure what goes into complete products is safe and guaranteed. This could be addressed and monitored by applying genetic testing. Each product and ingredient have its own DNA, just like fingerprints. Nowadays, there are many methodologies developed for this type of test. The DNA testing could be a helpful tool to help facility verify the authenticity of incoming raw materials. Genetic testing using methods like polymerase chain reaction (PCR) technology to detect the DNA of the product upon getting the incoming goods. Moreover, as fast as it can be, services can now receive the test results within one to two hours. The testing itself might look like an extra step with more effort and labor. However, the reappearance is a huge saving on damages caused by food fraud.

Make the entire supply chain transparent: This transparency not only applies to internal employees but also outward to consumers and vendors. That way familiarize yourself with own supply chain, while at the same time create brand reputation and confidence to consumers.

Keep all records documented: The records should keep, besides a registration list of all ingredients and vendors, should contain the inventory list, how ingredients are used, whether it is used outside of its envisioned use and authorized personnel signatures.