Food fraud advisory unit launched

14th April 2009, 12:00pm

The Food Standards Agency (FSA) has today announced the launch of a new advisory resource to support local authorities in their work to tackle food fraud.

The Food Fraud Advisory Unit (FFAU) is a group of 16 officials with extensive skills and experience in carrying out food fraud investigations, most of whom are practicing local authority enforcement officers.

The FFAU members have agreed, with the support of their employers, to provide advice, on request, to any UK local authority involved in investigating food fraud. This could include any illegal activity relating to food or feed.

The FFAU represents the latest development in a series of resources the Agency is making available to help combat food fraud.

Local authorities, industry and consumers have a vital role to play in tackling food fraud and the Agency encourages anyone who is aware of known, or suspected, food or feed fraud to contact the Agency by emailing foodfraud@foodstandards.gsi.gov.uk or telephoning 020 7276 8527 (answerphone).

What is food fraud?

Food fraud is committed when food is deliberately placed on the market, for financial gain, with the intention of deceiving the consumer. 

Although there are many kinds of food fraud the two main types are: 

the sale of food that is unfit and potentially harmful, such as:
recycling of animal by-products back into the food chain
packing and selling of beef and poultry with an unknown origin
knowingly selling goods that are past their use by date

the deliberate misdescription of food, while not necessarily unsafe, deceives the consumer as to the nature of the product, such as:
products substituted with a cheaper alternative, for example, farmed salmon sold as wild, and Basmati rice adulterated with cheaper varities

making false statements about the source of ingredients, i.e. their geographic, plant or animal origin

Related Articles:

• 29 May 2009 - Reporting incidents should be a priority, says FSA

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