Unauthorized Food Manipulation as a Criminal Offense: Food Authenticity, Legal Frameworks, Analytical Tools and Cases

Abstract

Food fraud is a criminal intent motivated by economic gain to adulterate or misrepresent food ingredients and packaging. The development of a reliable food supply system is at great risk under globalization, but Food Business Operators (FBOs) have a legal obligation to implement and maintain food traceability and quality at all stages of food production, processing, and distribution. Incidents of food fraud have a strong negative impact on consumer confidence in the food industry. Therefore, local and international regulatory mechanisms are established to prevent or mitigate food fraud. This review brings new perspectives linking EU and US legislation, as well as new definitions and descriptions of the criminal aspect of food fraud incidents. It also describes certain new insights into the application of state-of-the-art methods and techniques that provide valuable tools for geographic, botanical, or other chemical markers of food authenticity. The review also provides an overview of the most common cases of food fraud worldwide from 2010 to 2020. Further research is needed to support the development of predictive models for innovative approaches to adulteration, especially when some valuable nutrients are replaced by toxic ingredients. A possible solution to minimize food fraud incidents is to increase the level of risk-based inspections, establish more productive monitoring and implementation of food protection systems in the supply chain, and implement better ingredient control and certification. National and international (e.g., regional) police offices for food fraud should be introduced, possessing knowledge and skills in food, food safety, food processing, and food products, as initial positive results have emerged in some countries.

The Status and Trends of Food Fraud in Tamale, Ghana

“…Consumers will not only miss out on consuming original and nutritional quality foods but they are also at risk of consuming potentially harmful adulterants. Unfortunately, most of these actions revealed by this survey are committed by offenders knowing very well the unavailability or insufficient systems to detect their actions and also to gain economic benefit in their business [19].…”

Potential hazards associated with the consumption of Scombridae fish: Infection and toxicity from raw material and processing

“…Therefore, in some industries, tunas were illegally treated with nitrite during processing to preserve the natural red colour of flesh. In fact, they inject a concentrate of nitrates and/or nitrites to create a nitrification reaction which will colour the dark brown flesh of tuna into an attractive red coloured flesh often associated with fresh tuna (reaction on certain forms of myoglobin) (Jurica et al, 2021; Niederer et al, 2019). The use of nitrite is permitted in certain food products, but in Europe, according to Commission Regulation (EU) No 1333/2008 it is strictly prohibited for fish because by preserving the colour of the flesh, it masks its natural degradation over time.…”

Meat consumption: theory, practice and future prospects

“…This scandal revealed weaknesses in public food control, traceability and origin of food in a supply chain, while adulteration of meat products (and others) remains a serious problem even today. Detailed explanations of the problem of authenticity have been published elsewhere [65].…”