Dr. Marion Nestle, longtime NYU professor of nutrition, food studies, and public health, with additional faculty roles at UC San Francisco and Cornell, is best known for analyzing the intersections of food, politics, and health, often exposing how government policy, corporate lobbying, and food industry marketing shape what we eat.
Crime and fraud in the food industry
Who knew that food manufacturers would be up against these kinds of frauds? Not me. That’s why I was interested to run across these items.
CANDY: Confectionery fraud surges as manufacturers struggle to stay ahead: Confectionery fraud is rising as volatile cocoa markets, premium ingredient demand and supply chain disruption create new opportunities for adulteration, substitution and counterfeiting.
WINE: National Food Crime Unit arrests man in £500K counterfeit wine bust: An operation by the Food Standards Agency (FSA) and National Food Crime Unit (NFCU) has resulted in an arrest over alleged wine fraud…. Read more
SUPPLEMENTS: Botanical adulteration on the rise despite 15 years of industry action: Adulteration is one of the most significant and persistent issues facing the botanical industry, and the issue appears to be on the rise, exacerbated by supply chain pressures, trade wars and climate change…. Read more
COMMENT
Food fraud is so common that the FDA has a page on it.
Estimating how frequently food fraud occurs or its exact economic impact can be hard because food fraud is designed to avoid detection. Outside estimates by experts have found that food fraud affects 1% of the global food industry at a cost of about $10-$15 billion a year, although some more recent expert estimates put the cost as high as $40 billion a year.
Caveat emptor!
The post Crime and fraud in the food industry appeared first on Food Politics by Marion Nestle.
Marion Nestle is Paulette Goddard Professor of Nutrition, Food Studies, and Public Health, Emerita, at New York University, which she chaired from 1988-2003 and from which she officially retired in September 2017. She is also Visiting Professor of Nutritional Sciences at Cornell. She earned a Ph.D. in molecular biology and an M.P.H. in public health nutrition from the University of California, Berkeley, and has been awarded honorary degrees from Transylvania University in Kentucky (2012) and from the City University of New York’s Macaulay Honors College (2016). In 2023, she was awarded The Edinburgh Medal (for science and society).
