Counterfeit and substandard foods are being hunted down, but what about foods mascaraing as other foods?

Operation OPSON is an annual Europol INTERPOL joint operation targeting fake and substandard food and beverages. Since 2011 OPSEN has been coordinated with support from customs, police, national food regulation bodies and private sector partners and its most recent run involved seizure of more than 3,600 tonnes and 9.7 million litres of counterfeit or substandard food and beverages, arresting 749 people.

A counterfeit food product is defined as a food product infringing an intellectual property right. All intellectual property rights defined under national and European law are included. A substandard food product is defined as a product which does not meet the criteria required by European and national laws regarding its production, packaging, storage and distribution. Generally speaking, it is a product of a quality inferior to that which is legally required under European and national standards. But what about food being passed off as something it is not? We all remember the horse-meat scandal, so has the industry not learnt its lesson?

A big issue facing our food businesses now is seafood fraud according to a report from non-profit conservation group Oceana. The report found that a fifth of more than 25,000 seafood samples are being mislabelled, mainly for economic gain. Sixty-five per cent of the studies showed clear economic motivation for the deliberate mislabelling.

A consumer watchdog in the UK found a number of cases of fish being sold and misrepresented with whiting being substituted for haddock; and haddock being sold as cod, with the cheaper variety being passed off as the more expensive fish and often by swapping the stated fish for one with a high mercury content. 

Beth Lowell of Oceana said: “It is likely that the average consumer has eaten mislabelled fish for sure. What’s more, there were also instances of endangered species being sold under other names. “The increased traceability and consumer labelling efforts across the EU point us to solutions that really do work to decrease seafood fraud, particularly in sectors and products covered by these legal provisions".

With growing concern from consumers that they are actually eating what they think they are eating, it’s more important than ever that food businesses ensure that they can demonstrate traceability of their entire supply chain.