Food Fraud? Mislabelling? The Food Sector Faces ‘Absolute Chaos’

Many people will remember the ‘Horsegate’ scandal, where horse meat entered the supply chain as beef, leading to the withdrawal of millions of products across Europe and costing businesses millions of pounds. It has now been a decade since one of the biggest food fraud cases, yet consumers remain vulnerable to food safety issues as instances of food fraud continue to rise. According to Professor Chris Elliott, a food safety expert, the UK food safety system faces “absolute chaos.”

Rising Food Fraud Products

The EU reported a record number of potential olive oil fraud cases in the first quarter of this year. The cost of olive oil has more than doubled since 2018 due to production being affected by extreme weather. As prices spiked, so did instances of potential fraud and safety concerns related to olive oil. In July, authorities in southern Italy broke up a racket selling fake olive oil, seizing 42 tonnes of the ‘extra virgin’ variety worth almost $1 million.

Meanwhile, an FSA report found that lead dyes, chalk dust, and brick dust were being used to adulterate chilli powder and paprika. The lucrative black market within the spice industry emerged as some businesses sought cheap substitutes to cut costs and boost profits.

There is no doubt that cost pressures and the need to remain compliant, have posed significant challenges to the food industry. Systemic corporate greed, gross negligence, and appalling dishonesty have heightened risks to food safety in the pursuit of cost reduction. What happens when profits are prioritised over everything we know to be right?

Various Food Mislabelling

There is a growing catalogue of incidents, and mislabelling is one of the key challenges within the food sector. From misleading health claims and false origin statements to non-compliant labelling, the industry is grappling with a string of labelling issues.

Unclear Health Claims

With increasing awareness of healthy eating, people are seeking better alternatives amongst their food choices. However, many consumers are misled about the true nutritional values and the high fat, salt, and sugar (HFSS) content of the products they are purchasing.

Some companies substitute fats with modified starches like maltodextrins to make ‘low calorie’ claims and use non-nutritive sweeteners as sugar replacements. This practice misleads consumers into believing they are choosing ‘healthier’ options. This can be especially problematic for individuals with metabolic conditions such as obesity, Type 2 Diabetes Mellitus, hypercholesterolemia, and fatty liver, as they cannot accurately calculate the true glycaemic effects by reading the food label alone.

While misleading health claims can deceive consumers about the nutritional value of their food, false origin labels are another common tactic used to manipulate purchasing decisions by creating the illusion of local or premium sourcing.

False Origin Claims

Which? found that some product labels contained ‘fairly meaningless’ information, such as a pack of gammon joints at one major supermarket where the pork was labelled as “EU and non-EU origin”, in other words ‘anywhere in the world’.

In fact, 64% of consumers said they are more likely to buy a product labelled ‘British’ than one without this origin. Some businesses exploit this by labelling food products as originating from a specific country or region to attract customers, even when the actual source is elsewhere. This practice can erode consumer trust and damage the reputation of genuine local producers.

Whilst misleading origin claims can undermine consumer confidence in product sourcing, inaccurate allergen labelling poses an even greater risk, directly impacting the health and safety of millions of people with food allergies.

Hidden ‘May Contain’ Allergen

A major study by the Food Standards Agency (FSA) revealed that around 2.4 million people in the UK live with a clinically confirmed food allergy. Although Natasha’s Law came into effect in 2021, there have still been fatal allergen incidents due to incorrectly labelled products.

Celia Marsh, a 42-year-old with a severe dairy allergy, died in 2017 after eating a ‘super-veg rainbow flatbread’ wrap from Pret a Manger in Bath. The wrap was contaminated with milk protein, which was not listed on the food label. A product marked as dairy-free should be totally free from dairy.

Since Mrs. Marsh’s death, the Food Standards Agency (FSA) announced that it had updated its food allergen business guidance. The new recommendation states that a precautionary allergen label, also known as a ‘may contain’ statement, can be applied to vegan products if there is a risk of cross-contamination with allergens of animal origin, such as fish, shellfish, milk or eggs.

How to Prevent Food Fraud and Mislabelling

From food fraud to food mislabelling, the food sector is under immense pressure to improve clarity and transparency across the entire supply chain. For manufacturers, it’s crucial to have technology that ensures sufficient laboratory testing and accurate labelling to detect mistakes and prevent genuine human errors.

As an end-to-end MIS/MES provider, Harford Control offers Laboratory Information Management System (LIMS) and Autocoding Solutions to support quality control and labelling accuracy.

Whilst laboratory testing helps to detect fraud and raw material mistakes, automated set up of date coders and barcode scanners, especially on frequent product changeovers, helps prevent mistakes, often due to complacency. Genuine mistakes and complacency are often the biggest threats to manufacturing operations.

Risks of complacency are easy to understand, simply because, as is often stated, ‘the longer a company manufactures without a coding or labelling error, the greater the risk of them having one’.

Harford LIMS helps manufacturers track and trace approved materials and monitor non-compliant products while our Autocoding Solutions ensure that HFSS, origin and allergen information on each package and outer case is accurately labelled. Harford LIMS and Autocoding Solutions can be integrated seamlessly. Any batches from the shop floor will automatically initiate certain actions based on predefined triggers to the laboratory.

If your factory is looking to tackle food fraud issues and minimise inaccurate labelling challenges, please reach out to us at info@harfordcontrol.com or give us a call on +44 (0)1225 764461.