How to Reduce the Risks of Food Fraud With the Right Food Traceability and Anti-counterfeiting Solution

Counterfeiting food and beverage products is a growing problem due to global distribution and low-cost production methods that paved the way for corrupt manufacturers looking to make a bigger buck. Food fraud has also been exacerbated by the global pandemic as more people shopped for groceries online and through third-party sellers.

According to a study by SSAFE and PwC, food fraud (pre-pandemic) was estimated to cost the global industry between USD $30 to $40 billion a year. However, Food Safety Tech indicates that the figure could be even higher after COVID-19 due to supply chain issues as well as reduced food fraud surveillance and reporting due to lockdowns and labor shortages.

In addition, several countries have put caps on the number of exports of certain foodstuffs and other protectionist measures in order to stave the effects of food prices rocketing domestically; this provides the perfect conditions for food counterfeiters to inject fraudulent products into the global supply chain.

As companies in the agri-food business know, many products are vulnerable to being manipulated in the food supply. Lists abound showing the top and most common counterfeit foods, which can range from olive oil to caviar—and everything in between.

As the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations indicates, while regulatory strategies and other legal instruments have been implemented on both national and international levels, the multifaceted complexities of food fraud make it difficult for governments and stakeholders throughout the value chain to eradicate food counterfeiting.

Let’s take a look at these complexities and how new technology solutions are helping businesses in the food sector to overcome them and protect their brands.

THE DIFFICULTIES IN FIGHTING FOOD FRAUD

Fighting food fraud has traditionally been very difficult. As mentioned in a recent Food Safety Tech article: “there is currently no globally standardized system for collection and reporting information on food fraud occurrences, or even standardized definitions for food fraud and the ways in which it happens.”

Not having a clear definition of food fraud for each food product as well as clear guidance on how to prevent and reduce food counterfeiting is just the tip of the iceberg.

Not all food anti-counterfeiting solutions are created equally. Here are some top criteria to keep in mind when looking for a technology provider that can help trace and authenticate food products.

Scope: Food fraud and counterfeiting practices can be very sophisticated, meaning that they are designed to evade regulatory and quality assurance systems. Can the solution detect all types of food fraud, such as product counterfeiting, market diversions, product refilling, and labelling issues?

Ease in implementation: Look for a digital traceability solution that can be integrated within your company’s operational workflows and other business systems. Consider how easy the platform can work with different levels of authentication as well as stakeholders along the supply chain, from raw material providers all the way to consumers, auditors and investigators.

Not just identification—authentication: Identifying a counterfeit product is one thing. Authenticating it is a whole other ball game. Make sure that your platform has AI and machine-learning capabilities to compare a product image to a cloud-based master value taken from a production line.

Variety of UIDs: Product unique identifiers (UIDs) should be available based on the type of food product. For example, does the platform have 2D codes for low-margin products as well as other UID variations for stronger authentication, like holograms, tamper-evident, double labelling, and advanced signature matching using artificial intelligence?

Advanced aggregation: Some traceability and intelligent supply chain platforms offer aggregation features to detect market diversion and other supply chain anomalies. For example, aggregation can help agri-food businesses to identify gray markets, visualize real-time

inventory information (such as level, location, item number, expired date and cold chain conditions, etc.).

Flexible hardware: Agri-food businesses deal with disparate supplies with even more disparate work methods. In order to fully authenticate a food product, it’s important to determine just how accessible a food traceability platform is. Can it extract information from paper-based workflows? Are the data extraction points easy to use for people of all skill levels? Full compliance and authenticity can be compromised if one weak leak in the supply chain cannot prove any fraudulent practices were involved in making a food product.

Consumer interfacing tools: For the highest brand protection, a food anti-counterfeiting solution must enable touchpoints with consumers. With a product marker, consumers should be able to scan a food item with their mobile phones and instantly access a link towards product authentication information.