Food fraud is crime of the century

THE EUROPEAN Commission has been asked to clarify what measures are in place to tackle the growing problem of food fraud, amid concerns that the proliferation of counterfeit products could threaten the reputation of the valuable Irish agri-food sector. A recent UCD study found that 82 per cent of fish such as pollock and whiting sold on the Dublin market had been fraudulently labelled as the more expensive species of cod. In October 2011, an audit of Irish meat and dairy products by the Food and Veterinary Office found several cases of misleading labelling, including a case where a product made in one factory was labelled as coming from a different food business. Fianna Fáil MEP Liam Aylward, who tabled a series of written questions to the Commission on the issue before the summer break, is due to hear back this autumn on whether EU-wide statistics are available on the level of food fraud detection across the EU. 'Given that agri-food products account for ten per cent of Irish exports and add some €24 billion to the national economy, food fraud represents a significant risk to the credibility of the sector,' he said. The MEP wants the EU Commission to explain if it is formulating an EU-wide strategy to enforce food legislation, and how it ensures that imported food products from outside the EU comply with rules on labelling, traceability and nutritional information. A Europol investigation which took place over the course of one week in late 2011 seized 13,000 bottles of sub-standard olive oil, 77 tonnes of counterfeit cheese and 30 tonnes of fake tomato sauce. The demand for inexpensive food has seen the fake food trade grow to the value of about €39 billion annually, causing the World Customs Institute to dub food fraud as 'the crime of the century'.