Food Authenticity Network

A great (and free) outline of best practice principles, particularly useful for small businesses to prevent themselves falling victim to #foodfraud

Free online session - use of untargeted #foodfraud analysis: Discover the principles of untargeted analysis, best practice and pitfalls. Two leaders from FAN's Centres of Expertise, E. Kate Kemsley of University of East Anglia and Catherine Frankis of RSSL, will share their insight. FAN's John Points will try to stay quiet and let the experts speak. Live discussion panel plus Q&A. 24 July, 11:00 EST / 16:00 BST. As part of the 2-day Advances in Food and Beverage Testing event, organised by Technology Networks. Registration is here. https://lnkd.in/eCBHTGbc

TOWARDS THE TRICORDER? Can you point an instrument at your food and tell exactly what is in it? Deep Learning is enabling incredible strides. A recent example – detecting 5% sheep lung adulteration in ground beef purely by differences in the way it heats or cools (thermography). https://lnkd.in/ebjpxmHC In the Year 2025, this will still be impractical. Gains in the ease of analysis are dwarfed by the time and complexity needed to train the AI. A new AI model would be needed for pig lung. Or for cattle heart. Or for beef ground from a different breed of cattle. But in the Year 2525, if man is still alive, if woman can survive, they may find …………. laboratories and analytical chemists are obsolete (with apologies to Zager & Evans)

A FANtastic milestone. We now have 5,000 global members who can access free - #foodfraud mitigation tools - Networking between industry, analysts and regulators - Monthly bulletins - Newsletters and insights - Access to research, test methods and much much more. If you are one of the remaining (9 billion - 5,000) non-members - sign up for free here https://lnkd.in/e5c9TB8P Thanks to all those who have built FAN since 2015. Here's to the next 10 years! Selvarani Elahi MBE, Sterling Crew, Stephen Ellison, Michael Walker, Mark Woolfe, Liz Moran, Barbara Hirst, Sophie Rollinson, Bhavna Parmar. Lucy Foster, Chris Elliott, Felicia Golden, John Points, CLICK DUO Creative, John W SPINK, Quincy Lissaur

When is a Sandwich not a Sandwich? (and why does it matter?) US food labelling law can be state-specific and sometimes inconsistent. In Indiana, as of a recent Superior Court judgement, a burrito is a sandwich.  According to the USDA and a previous test-case, it is not.  In New York, a burrito is a sandwich for tax purposes. These technicalities are important. Closed-face sandwiches are under FDA jurisdiction. They do not require USDA FSIS label approval, although any meat must be from a USDA inspected facility. Conversely, the USDA regulates meat-based open-face sandwiches. Unsurprisingly, perhaps, the National Hot Dog and Sausage Council remain adamant that Hot Dogs are not sandwiches. This fascinating new world was opened to me by the Keller and Heckman blog “The Daily Intake”. It underlines the importance of getting local label compliance advice whenever selling food into a new market. https://lnkd.in/eHYSHSxn Photo by Kashish Lamba on Unsplash

IT COULD BE YOU! Somebody, somewhere in the World, will become our 5,000th member within the next few days. Sign up to FAN for free and it could be you. https://lnkd.in/e5c9TB8P As well as the kudos, all our members can access fraud mitigation best practice, resources, test methods and a monthly updates e-mail plus much, much more.

What is the fraud risk if buying algae? A better question might be "Who is the right person to ask?" It is easy for you, or I, to flag up novel proteins on a horizon scanning list and hypothise some #foodfraud risks. If a specific harvest area or algal species is "non food grade" due to heavy metal content then there's a risk of illicit diversion into the food supply. Right? It should go on the list? In reality, I have no idea if this is credible or not. It takes a Subject Matter Expert to understand the detail; the supply chain, the economics, the pinch-points and pressures, and the resultant risk. The same applies to any food or ingredient, but particularly #novelfoods where it is easy to leap on a buzzword. The devil is in the detail, and the only way to find the detail is to ask an expert. (a good paper on #foodsafety risks in algae is here https://lnkd.in/eQCe8UkS) Photo by Brian Yurasits on Unsplash

How to assess fraud risks in your #supplychain? There are plenty of good risk-scoring models, many highlighted on the FAN website. https://lnkd.in/duUFGU9A But it is worth thinking creatively, beyond the standard scoring. Are the Directors previously disqualified or from a history of short-lived companies? Does the supplier have magic stocks of ingredients in short supply? Or - as was mentioned at a great Institute of Food Science and Technology (IFST) Western Branch conference on #foodsafety culture this week - why not read ex-employee reviews on Glassdoor or Indeed? (This review is for a UK food manufacturer, and although not in the majority it was not alone in its verdict).

Is #foodfraud also a #foodsafety risk? In the most serious cases - definitely. Even beyond the headlines, analysis of the FoodChain ID collation of fraud records 1980-2022 shows 49% had a direct safety risk. https://lnkd.in/eEdXrAu3 And for the remainder? Even when not causation, there is still correlation. How likely is it that the sort of business (or employee) who falsifies records to mislead their customers would diligently follow their own food safety management systems? To find out more, join the Food Authenticity Network for free https://lnkd.in/e5c9TB8P #worldfoodsafetyday2024 (thank you, Karen Everstine, for the data analysis and CLICKDUO CREATIVE for the graphic)

Synthetic textile dyes in food are a thing of the past, right? Well …………… it depends on where you are, and what you are buying. For example, sudan red dyes are perennially detected in local West African oil disguised as palm oil. And a recent market-survey of spices in Singapore found 7% with synthetic dyes. https://lnkd.in/ekD6ufh5 Large branded food manufacturers have generally eliminated the problem. But there is still a watching brief. Particularly if supply volatility forces a switch to a new ingredient source. There are parts of the world where some historical issues have never gone away. The theme of the 7 June World Food Safety Day is “Expect the Unexpected”. Maybe we should add “But Do Not Forget the Expected”. Photo by Annie Spratt on Unsplash