Professor Lisa Jack, an expert in food systems and food crime at the University of Portsmouth and the project leader, said: “This is the first time a team has been able to calculate a cost of food crime on the economy from data on individual crimes, rather than using proxies. We were pleased to work with the Food Standards Agency to develop this ground-breaking model.”
The FSA, working with food industry partners, has published (10 October) a set of proposals from the Food Fraud Working Group that will strengthen the collective response to food crime:
- launching a new freephone number for the food fraud hotline to make it easier for people to speak up and share their concerns;
- working with industry on ways to encourage food fraud whistleblowing;
- strengthening information sharing arrangements between the third-party auditors used by food businesses, and the FSA, to help prevent criminal activity;
- improving how the FSA issues intelligence-based alerts to better warn food businesses about potential food fraud in supply chains.
The FSA has also published a second report called ‘What works to prevent food fraud‘, which highlights ways to complement their existing food fraud prevention work and strengthen lines of defence against fraudsters.
Emily Miles, CEO of the FSA, said: “The UK has some of the safest and most authentic food in the world, but there will always be a threat of criminality in the food system.
“Food businesses are the first and most important line of defence and we want to support them. This is one of the reasons why we launched a working group to explore whether some areas of our collective response to food crime can be improved. Together, we’re making it easier to share intelligence and information by helping people who work in the food system to share their concerns with us freely and confidentially.
“Our research suggests that for businesses and consumers feeling the financial strain, the cost of food crime still matters.”
