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SPEAKER: Food fraud cost the world billions and can have serious health consequences. Past scandals featuring fake olive oil in Spain, melamine-laced milk in China, and Salmonella-riddled peanuts in the US have caused severe illness and even deaths. It's estimated that food fraud affects at least of global food trade at a cost of up to $40 billion annually.
And as the world faces stubbornly high food prices, driven by war in Ukraine and the effects of global warming, it has become more tempting for criminals to pass off cheap or contaminated food as more costly produce. Food inflation has hit historic highs in the UK, the US, and Europe in recent months. And Britain's food Standards Agency has advised retailers to apply extra due diligence to their supply chains.
Queen's University Belfast Professor Kris Elliott, an expert on food fraud, recently stated that the UK was more vulnerable to a large scale fraud than at any time in the past 20 to 30 years. And the potential for a big scandal across Europe was very, very high. In the UK, the Food Standards Agency is currently investigating an unnamed meat supplier that allegedly claimed foreign pork was British.
Former employees accused the same company, which has since gone into administration, of mixing rotting meat into products eventually destined for schools, hospitals, and prisons. Over in the EU, an investigation by the European Commission's anti-fraud office has found that nearly half of the honey imported into the bloc may be fake, having been bulked out by sugar syrups, a practise known as honey laundering.
In December 2022, Europol, the Eu's Crime fighting agency, uncovered a Spanish criminal network that was selling horse unfit for human consumption. Between 2013 and 2022, the food groups most susceptible to some form of adulteration were meat, dairy, seafood, spices, and alcohol according to food services company, Food Chain ID.
There are ways to combat food fraud, which include using sensors and blockchain technology to help track, goods through a supply chain, while DNA and chemical testing can verify that food is what it purports to be. But food supply chains are often complex and global, making it hard to monitor the quality and origin of ingredients. And with war and extreme weather continuing to push up prices and incentivize criminals, food police around the world have their work cut out.
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