| Abstract: |
Five years on from the horsemeat scandal that gripped Europe, the lack of a definition for food fraud remains a missing link in the fight against this criminal activity, according to Prof Chris Elliott of Queen’s University Belfast. In opening comments to the Food Fraud 2018 conference in London earlier this month, Prof Chris Elliott of Queen’s University Belfast – who authored two UK government-commissioned reports on the horsemat crisis – said that work has now started via the United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization’s Codex Alimentarius Commission on a definition for food fraud which could hopefully be completed sometime in 2019.There are already definitions in use but having a widely-accepted, global definition bringing in the key concepts of deception and economic gain will help make efforts to tackle the problem more effective, and help improve consumer trust in the food supply system which is currently at a low ebb. The horsemeat crisis was a “wake-up call” to the world about food fraud and the ability of criminals to penetrate complex food supply systems and threaten the integrity of food producers and the wellbeing of consumers, said Prof Elliott. The UK imports food from almost all countries around the world, so it is important to understand that food fraud isn’t a far-flung problem that mainly affects other countries, he added, noting that there isn’t a country in the word - or indeed a food type - that isn’t affected to some extent by food fraud activity. |
