What is food fraud?
In technical terms, food fraud is “the intentional misrepresentation of the true identity or contents of a food ingredient or product for economic gain”.
In plain English, this means deliberately adding, removing or replacing ingredients, using illegal processing methods and/or making misleading claims on the label (such as where it’s from or the percentage of a certain ingredient) to increase the price.
You may have seen news stories about rotting meat being mixed with fresh and then repackaged, counterfeit vodka, olive oil gangs or fake honey flooding the market. These are all examples of food fraud, and they’re becoming increasingly common.
Why is fake food on the rise?
Between 2016 and 2019, the number of suspected food fraud cases in the EU increased by 85%. And industry experts say numbers will keep rising worldwide.
According to The Financial Times, higher food prices are tempting more criminals to pass off cheap or contaminated foods as better-quality versions. These price rises are driven by mounting stresses on global supply chains, such as the war in Ukraine and the effects of climate change on harvests, like drought and wildfires.
Food safety expert Professor Chris Elliott told industry publication The Grocer that one of the biggest issues fuelling food fraud is the “Wild West” of online shopping, that has very few regulations. When we can’t find what we want in supermarkets, many of us buy it online, but “they can basically sell whatever they want,” he says.
The top 5 fake foods
Unless you have a testing laboratory at home, it’s hard to know if you are buying counterfeit foods. To help protect you, here are the top 5 fake foods on the market – and the key signs to look out for.
1. Tomato purée
A December 2024 BBC investigation recently discovered a number of UK supermarkets were selling ‘Italian’ tomato purée that appear likely to contained tomatoes grown and picked in China using forced labour. Although their labels claimed the purée was Italian, tests showed they were likely made from tomatoes grown in the Xinjiang region, an area linked to forced labour using detained Uyghur and other Muslim minorities.
Most of the purées found to contain Chinese tomatoes were supermarkets’ own-label versions, including Morrisons, Tesco and Waitrose – although the supermarkets say their own tests show no trace of Chinese tomatoes. But all those by top Italian brands and some stores’ own-label purées (Sainsbury’s and Marks & Spencer) contained only Italian tomatoes.
Make sure you’re buying genuine Italian tomato purée by sticking with reputable Italian brands, or look for products that have DOP or POD on the label. This stands for Denominazione di Origine Protetta or Protected Designation of Origin and shows that products are grown and made by local producers.
2. Olive oil
Rising olive oil prices, driven by a global shortage of olives following extreme weather events, have created a huge black market in fake olive oil. In the first few months of 2024, the EU already had a record number of potential olive oil fraud and mislabelling cases – and numbers are expected to keep increasing.
Extra virgin olive oil (EVOO) is particularly at risk due to the higher prices it commands. Police across Europe have uncovered several criminal networks passing off lower grade olive oils, or other plant oils like sunflower oil, as EVOO, or olive oils bulked out with unsafe ingredients, such as lamp oil, or low-grade pomace olive oil.
To guarantee you’re buying genuine ‘liquid gold’, look for PDO or PGI (Protected Geographical Indication) on the label. You could also buy it from smaller producers who can very easily trace the origins of their olive oil. Sounds like the perfect excuse to pick up a bottle direct from a producer on your next holiday.
3. Honey
You may be eating fake honey without realising. The Honey Authenticity Network recently discovered that 90% of the honey they tested on UK supermarket shelves contains cheap syrup, while a 2018 study looking at honey samples taken from around the world found 27% were bulked out with lower-grade ingredients.
Research shows honey is often diluted with glucose, sugar or corn syrups – a process known as ‘honey laundering’ – while labels may claim it’s from a different country to where it was really produced, or it could be made in a number of different locations and then labelled as the product of one country.
Protect your toast from counterfeit honey by buying from reputable brands and check the label to see if it contains extra ingredients and where it was produced. You could also search for local beekeepers to buy your honey directly from them.
4. Herbs and spices
Those tiny packets of herbs and spices are one of the biggest food groups targeted by fraudsters. The US Food & Drug Administration (FDA) warns that saffron – one of the most expensive herbs in the world – is often bulked out with cheaper plant stems, while studies have found ground black pepper could also contain papaya seeds, millet or even twigs!
Fake vanilla pods (stripped of their seeds) or ‘real’ vanilla extra that’s really synthetic vanillin, are also becoming more common. But some counterfeit spices pose a serious risk to your health. In America, the FDA has discovered cases of lead-based food colourings or industrial dyes linked to health issues like cancer, added to various spices including chili powder, turmeric and cumin.
To avoid being duped, go for the whole versions of herbs and spices – like cinnamon sticks or whole black pepper – and check the country of origin on the labels.
5. Fish and seafood
Most cases of fish fraud involve mislabelling, where cheaper species are passed off as more expensive species – rockfish or other types of snapper are often sold as red snapper. A Guardian investigation in 2021 revealed around 35% of seafood samples taken from restaurants, fishmongers and supermarkets worldwide were mislabelled.
The UN’s Food and Agriculture Organization warns of prawns being injected with gels to make them weigh more and look more appealing but these aren’t designed to be eaten, posing a risk to our health. There’s also evidence of highly toxic pesticides being poured into the sea to catch fish, and formaldehyde used to preserve seafood. That said, when it comes to UK supermarket fish standards, they are higher than what you might eat in a restaurant or takeaway.
If you’re ordering fish in a restaurant, ask questions about how fresh it is or where it was caught. Try to buy seafood from your local fishmongers and check for any certifications, like the Marine Stewardship Council or The Soil Association for organic fish. And remember; if something seems too cheap to be true, it’s probably fake.
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