Below you will find a link to the pre-meeting preview of my recent presentation at the European Federation of Food Science and Technology (EFFoST) annual conference in Dublin. It is fantastic to see food fraud prevention becoming a common conference topic. Participation in events like this is very important and valuable.
Link to Pre-Meeting Preview Video Presentation: URL (31 minutes): https://youtu.be/m3qjOY8ZHvI
The EFFoST conference is a top event for the food industry. During our planning discussions, it became clear that a broad, over-arching perspective on food fraud prevention was needed. This activity builds upon our previous research, including those published in EFFoST journals during recent food fraud prevention research, and the presentation included my expanded focus on supply chain management.
Summary of my presentation content:
From Melamine to Infinity
- The food fraud vulnerabilities are rapidly evolving…
- But they always have…
- The food fraud threats are changing…
- But they always have…
- The food fraud countermeasures and control systems need to evolve constantly…
- But they always have…
- To financially efficiently apply research, investigation, countermeasures and control systems, there needs to be a precise focus on specific fraud opportunities, not the general problem of “food fraud”…
- But they always have…
For whatever project you are working on (or that funds you), start by understanding the fraud opportunity of specific problems… then you can calibrate your work to be immediately helpful.
Optimal Role of Food Authenticity in Food Fraud Prevention
The role of science and technology—as well as investigation and prosecution—should be judged by the contribution to prevention.
If there is not a defined fraud opportunity or an overall vulnerability assessment, then the countermeasures and controls systems are no more than a guess. This would be an educated, intellectual best guess but a guess nonetheless.
- Understand the root cause
- Understand how the bad guy will evolve
- Explain your solution in terms of prevention (not just “more is better” or “you should do something”)
Takeaway Points:
- There are constantly new types of food fraud incidents, but the basic management systems and processes were built to inherently adapt – whether it is melamine, horsemeat, Ukraine-Russia, or inflation, the current methods and procedures apply.
- While it is great that food fraud prevention is becoming a common food safety industry concept, that doesn’t mean that the innovation and implementation are complete – we are really just starting the shift to fully functioning management systems.
- There is a crucial role of science and technology in food fraud prevention, but ‘we will not test our way to safety’ – we need to continue the interdisciplinary approach to understanding and to reduce the root cause.
Reference:
Spink, John W (2022). The Evolution of Food Fraud Vulnerabilities: Beyond Melamine to Infinity, Tuesday, November 8, 2022, Subtheme 3: Advances to Enhance Food Safety, Security, Authenticity, and Integrity, European Federation of Food Science and Technology (EFFoST) conference Dublin, Ireland, Pre-Conference Video Version – URL (31-minutes): https://youtu.be/m3qjOY8ZHvI
Presentation title: The Evolution of Food Fraud Vulnerabilities: Beyond Melamine to Infinity
Presentation summary: Collectively, the global food supply chain stressors are creating new market dynamics that have evolved food fraud vulnerabilities. This presentation will begin by focusing on the market changes and the future scenarios that are constantly evolving. The global food supply chain has been massively stressed by COVID-related supply and consumer stressors, ripple effects of many other factors contributing to global shortages and inflation, and events such as Ukraine-Russia are creating what some call the most significant impact on European and global commerce since World War II. The food fraud vulnerability assessments must also continue to evolve by considering both old and new system factors. Fortunately, the core food fraud initial screening and broad incident review methods still apply – as long as they are looking at new and evolving vulnerabilities. This holistic and all-encompassing prevention approach was started ten-years ago when the Global Food Safety Initiative (GFSI) created a Food Fraud Think Tank to understand ‘what’ food fraud is. The work expanded from ‘the what’ to ‘the how’ to address the problem. Over the years – and particularly through publications in EEFoST journals – the focus further expanded to ‘how much is enough.’