Oct 18th, 2023
3 mins
The Food Standards Agency has published two research reports, one estimating that food crime costs the UK economy up to £2 billion a year and another which makes recommendations on food crime prevention.
‘The Cost of Food Crime’ research revealed that overall the combination of the very high degree of awareness of food safety, quality and fraud among large UK businesses, local authorities and enforcement agencies, and the extensive use of objective diagnostic testing means that the sector has built resilience to fraud. However, small, and medium sized businesses in the UK are more vulnerable, and there is a real impact on the economy from frauds that occur.
The second report entitled ‘What works to prevent food fraud’ was undertaken to guide the FSA and the National Food Crime Unit (NFCU) on the development of future strategies and operational activities to improve food fraud prevention.
Its aims were to:
(1) Investigate successful initiatives and strategies for fraud prevention and especially food fraud prevention;
(2) understand what has worked well in preventing commodity-based fraud (including food fraud) and the lessons learned from these initiatives and strategies;
(3) provide recommendations which could be adopted by the NFCU and incorporated into the unit’s key strategies; and
(4) provide recommendations for any future research required within this area.
More information and links to download both reports can be found here.
