Combating food fraud seminar
Wednesday 20 February 2008
More than a hundred people from local authorities, consumer organisations, industry and the media, as well as public analysts, attended an Agency seminar last week on food authenticity and the analytical tools that can detect fraud.
The seminar discussed on the development and use of state-of-the-art methods to uncover where there is deliberate misdescription for financial gain in the UK and Europe. It looked at existing and developing methods to combat food fraud, as well as giving participants the opportunity to share experiences and raise potential issues of fraud in industry.
The methods discussed were developed as part of the Agency’s authenticity programme, which investigates many aspects of misdescription.
The Agency received positive feedback from the delegates on the wide range of topics covered during the event, the innovative use of science to detect food fraud and the methods developed using chemical, biochemical and DNA markers to detect adulteration and misdescription of foods.
The presentations given at the seminar can be found at the links below.
What is the authenticity programme?
The authenticity programme is the name for Agency-funded food authenticity research and surveillance programmes.
The FSA aims to ensure consumers have clear and accurate information so that they can make informed choices about their diets and the food they buy. The research and surveillance programmes work to ensure that the labelling and description of foods are accurate and not misleading.
Further information
For further information about the seminar and the authenticity programme, please contact:
Lucy Sharp
tel: 020 7276 8406
email: lucy.sharp@foodstandards.gsi.gov.uk
The science behind the story
Check out Agency Chief Scientist Dr Andrew Wadge's blog posting on the seminar at food.gov.uk/scienceblog.
Related links
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