Have your ingredients been adulterated?

Economically motivated adulteration (aka food fraud) is estimated to affect 10% of the world’s food supply. This global economic and public health problem is estimated to cost the food and beverage industry $10–$15 billion each year, and this sum does not include the cost of the damage to a brand if consumers discover they have been buying adulterated product.

To help food manufacturers and retailers make informed decisions about ingredients in their portfolio that may have been adulterated, the U.S. Pharmacopeial Convention (USP) has launched the next generation of its Food Fraud Database (FFD 2.0). The FFD 2.0 provides food manufacturers with the ability to look at past incidents of fraud and take proactive steps to protect their supply chains — thus protecting their reputation and ensuring consumer confidence in their products.

The FFD 2.0 provides hazards reports on specific adulterants, making it easier for manufacturers and retailers to quickly identify ingredients with a known history of adulteration with potentially hazardous substances.

Another advantage of USP’s FFD 2.0 is in supporting compliance with the Global Food Safety Initiative (GFSI), an industry-driven initiative providing guidance on food safety management which requires food manufacturers and retailers to identify and analyse potential hazards including those resulting from economically motivated adulteration as part of their food safety plans.

This update of the database — considered  the largest collection of food fraud records in the world — includes not only thousands of ingredients and related adulterants, but also incident reports, surveillance records and analytical methods gathered from scientific literature, media publications, regulatory records, judicial records and trade associations around the world. New features in FFD 2.0 allow users to identify historical trends and vulnerabilities through a customisable dashboard, which can include automatic alerts of new records of food fraud and automated analytics for ingredients of interest.

For more information on the FFD 2.0 and other food fraud prevention tools, including standards, training and advising services, visit www.foodfraud.org.