11^th Global Food Security Food Safety and Sustainability

Food Fraud & Food Security

Food fraud occurs when a food supplier intentionally deceive its customer about the quality and contents of the foods they are purchasing. While food fraud is often motivated by profit, some forms of food fraud can also pose a direct threat to the health of customers and consumers. Detecting food fraud is a challenge because consumers alone cannot detect them, and food fraudsters are usually innovative in the ways they avoid detection. In Asia and the Pacific, the risk of food fraud is estimated to be high, due to the high demand for premium quality food combined with an increasingly globalised food supply chain. This document describes the key aspects of food fraud, and discusses a set of measures that food safety authorities can take in order to stop the persistent problem of food fraud.

The FAO provides this well-accepted definition of a state of food security: “Food security exists when all people, at all times, have physical, social and economic access to sufficient, safe and nutritious food which meets their dietary needs and food preferences for an active and healthy life.”