Fraud vulnerability in the Dutch milk supply chain: Assessments of farmers, processors and retailers

Food fraud threats in UK post-harvest seafood supply chains; an assessment of current vulnerabilities

Seafood fraud is commonly reported on food fraud databases and deceptive practices are highlighted by numerous studies, with impacts on the economy, health and marine conservation. Food fraud assessments are a widely accepted fraud mitigation and prevention activity undertaken to identify possible points of deception within a supply chain. This study aims to understand the food fraud vulnerability of post-harvest seafood supply chains in the UK and determine if there are differences according to commodity, supply chain node, business size and certification status. The SSAFE food fraud vulnerability assessment tool was used to assess 48 fraud factors relating to opportunities, motivations and controls. The analysis found seafood supply chains to have a medium vulnerability to food fraud, with the highest perceived vulnerability in technical opportunities. Certification status was a stronger determinant of vulnerability than any other factor, particularly in the level of controls, a factor that also indicated a higher perceived level of vulnerability in smaller companies and the food service industry. This paper also reviews historic food fraud trends in the sector to provide additional insights and the analysis indicates that certain areas of the supply chain, including uncertified prawn supply chains, salmon supply chains and food service companies, may be at higher risk of food fraud. This study conducts an in-depth examination of food fraud vulnerability relating to the UK and for seafood supply chains and contributes to a growing body of literature identifying areas of vulnerability and resilience to food related criminality within the global food system.

Exploring the application of ICTs in decarbonizing the agriculture supply chain: A literature review and research agenda

The contemporary agricultural supply chain necessitates the integration of information and communication technologies to effectively mitigate the multifaceted challenges posed by climate change and rising global demand for food products. Furthermore, recent developments in information and communication technologies, such as blockchain, big data analytics, the internet of things, artificial intelligence, cloud computing, etc., have made this transformation possible. Each of these technologies plays a particular role in enabling the agriculture supply chain ecosystem to be intelligent enough to handle today's world's challenges. Thus, this paper reviews the crucial information and communication technologies-enabled agriculture supply chains to understand their potential uses and contemporary developments. The review is supported by 57 research papers from the Scopus database. Five research areas analyze the applications of the technology reviewed in the agriculture supply chain: food safety and traceability, security and information system management, wasting food, supervision and tracking, agricultural businesses and decision-making, and other applications not explicitly related to the agriculture supply chain. The study also emphasizes how information and communication technologies can help agriculture supply chains and promote agriculture supply chain decarbonization. An information and communication technologies application framework for a decarbonized agriculture supply chain is suggested based on the research's findings. The framework identifies the contribution of information and communication technologies to decision-making in agriculture supply chains. The review also offers guidelines to academics, policymakers, and practitioners on managing agriculture supply chains successfully for enhanced agricultural productivity and decarbonization.

A Holistic Approach for Ethics and Sustainability in the Food Chain: The Gateway to Oral and Systemic Health

Food production is a complex matter, affecting people's lives, organizations' profits, and the well-being of the whole planet, and has multifaceted ethical considerations surrounding its production, distribution, and consumption. This paper addresses the pressing need to confront ethical challenges within the food system, encompassing issues such as environmental sustainability, food security, and individual food choices for better oral and systemic health of all individuals around the globe. From agricultural practices to global trade and food waste, ethical implications are addressed across various domains, highlighting the interconnectedness of ethical decision-making in the food industry. Central themes explored include the ethical dimensions of food production methods, the impact of global trade on food ethics, and the role of individuals in making ethically informed food choices. Additionally, this paper considers the spiritual and physical significance of food, particularly through the lens of oral health as a gateway to holistic well-being. Recognizing the complexity of the food and mouth ecosystem, this paper calls for serious interventions in legislation and economics to promote ethical protocols and techniques for sustainability reasons. It emphasizes the importance of ethical considerations in food safety management systems, regulatory frameworks, and quality standards. Moreover, this paper underlines the need for a comprehensive approach to address ethical dilemmas and moral values inherent in the food industry and oral health policies, adopting the precautionary principle and ethical decision-making frameworks. This article finally aims to serve as a call to action for stakeholders across the food industry and the healthcare sector, to prioritize ethical practices, promote transparency, rearrange economic parameters, and work towards a more sustainable and equitable food system for inner and outer oral and systemic health and human sustainability for all.

Consumption and Informal Trade of Milk in the North of Antioquia (Colombia)

The excessive and irrational use of antibiotics to control bovine mastitis and the informal trade in milk with antibiotic residues are objects of great interest for public health, due to the problems associated with the consumption of milk with antibiotic residues on human, animal, and environmental health, and antibiotic resistance. The objective of this study was to understand the attitudes of dairy farmers towards the self-consumption of milk on the farm, the use of milk with antibiotic residues, and the formal and informal milk trade that generates risks for public health. Mixed methods: cross-sectional and grounded theory. Convergent triangulation design. The study was carried out in 9 dairy municipalities in the North of Antioquia, where 216 dairy farmers participated in the quantitative component; and 17 milk producers and 9 veterinarians took part in the qualitative component. A dairy farmer characterization survey was conducted, as well as a survey on the use and marketing of milk from cows with udder health problems and/or under antibiotic treatment. Semistructured interviews were conducted on the same subject. The variable "Intention to sell milk in the village when the dairy industry does not buy it due to high BTSCC" is associated with the BTSCC variable. The variable "Type of marketing reported" is associated with the CFU variable. 5 categories: self-consumption of milk, use of milk with antibiotics, informal milk trade, control of the dairy industry, and beliefs about the elimination of antibiotics in milk, were constructed to theorize about udder health and public health. Sociocultural, political, and economic factors affect decision making in dairy farmers regarding the use and marketing of milk from cows with mastitis and antibiotic residues. These attitudes and behaviors have public health implications.

Food Fraud Vulnerability Assessment in the Chinese Baijiu Supply Chain

As a representative of Chinese alcoholic drinks, baijiu has developed into a mass-consumption commodity. Its simple industrial chain makes it a suitable target for fraudsters. In order to understand the differences and potential factors of fraud vulnerability among groups at various levels, this study constructed a food fraud vulnerability assessment system for the Chinese baijiu supply chain based on routine activities theory. We examined the fraud vulnerability in the baijiu supply chain with data from 243 producers and 45 retailers by using the safe supply of affordable food everywhere (SSAFE) food fraud vulnerability assessment (FFVA) tool. The results indicate that fraud factors related to opportunities have an overall medium vulnerability, while those related to motivations and control measures have an overall medium-low vulnerability. In addition, there are significant differences in the perceived vulnerability of fraud factors across the supply chain. Moreover, retailers have overall higher fraud vulnerability in terms of opportunities and control measures than producers. The main reasons for the frequent occurrence of fraud in the baijiu industry are numerous technical opportunities, strong economic drivers, and insufficient control measures.

A Bayesian Approach to Predict Food Fraud Type and Point of Adulteration

Primary and secondary food processing had been identified as areas vulnerable to fraud. Besides the food processing area, other stages within the food supply chain are also vulnerable to fraud. This study aims to develop a Bayesian network (BN) model to predict food fraud type and point of adulteration i.e., the occurrence of fraudulent activity. The BN model was developed using GeNie Modeler (BayesFusion, LLC) based on 715 notifications (1979-2018) from Food Adulteration Incidents Registry (FAIR) database. Types of food fraud were linked to six explanatory variables such as food categories, year, adulterants (chemicals, ingredients, non-food, microbiological, physical, and others), reporting country, point of adulteration, and point of detection. The BN model was validated using 80 notifications from 2019 to determine the predictive accuracy of food fraud type and point of adulteration. Mislabelling (20.7%), artificial enhancement (17.2%), and substitution (16.4%) were the most commonly reported types of fraud. Beverages (21.4%), dairy (14.3%), and meat (14.0%) received the highest fraud notifications. Adulterants such as chemicals (21.7%) (e.g., formaldehyde, methanol, bleaching agent) and cheaper, expired or rotten ingredients (13.7%) were often used to adulterate food. Manufacturing (63.9%) was identified as the main point of adulteration followed by the retailer (13.4%) and distribution (9.9%).

Enterprise Food Fraud in China: Key Factors Identification From Social Co-governance Perspective

Food fraud not only exacerbates human public health risks but also threatens the business development of food and related industries. Therefore, how to curb food fraud effectively becomes a crucial issue for governments, industries, and consumers. Previous studies have demonstrated that enterprise food fraud is subject to joint influences of factor at various hierarchical levels within a complex system of stakeholders. To address enterprise food fraud, it is necessary to identify the key such factors and elucidate the functional mechanisms, as well as systematic analysis of the interrelationships among clusters and factors. Hence, we grounded on a social co-governance perspective and investigated the food fraud key influencing factors and their interrelationships in an emerging food market – China, by using the DEMATEL-based analytic network process (DANP). Results showed that the identified key cluster was government regulation, social governance, and detection techniques. Four other key factors were also identified, including government regulatory capability and penalty intensity, expected economic benefits, maturity of market reputation mechanism, and transparency of supply chain. Policy implications from the social co-governance perspective for China and similar economies are discussed finally.

Which Company Characteristics Make a Food Business at Risk for Food Fraud?

Fraud can happen to any food business, but some sectors show more historical evidence of food fraud than others. This may be due to particular company characteristics that affect a company’s level of vulnerability. In the current study, we examined the relevance of the industry segment, business size, and location of food businesses on their food fraud vulnerabilities. Over 8000 food fraud vulnerability self-assessments conducted by food businesses active in 20 industry segments located in five continents were collected and the data analyzed. Results revealed that a company’s industry segment (chain and tier) affects its fraud vulnerability greatly and to a larger extent than the size of the business. The effect of industry segment on fraud vulnerability appears fairly similar across continents, whereas the effect of business size exhibits large geographical variation. The results demonstrate that those involved in animal product supply chains and end of chain nodes (catering, retail) are most vulnerable, and so are larger businesses, and businesses located in Africa and Asia. Current results imply that company characteristics are important determinants of the level of fraud vulnerability, and they may be used reversely in the future, i.e., as predictors of vulnerability.

Fraud vulnerability quantitative assessment of Wuchang rice industrial chain in China based on AHP-EWM and ANN methods

Vulnerability assessment has been used in the food fraud mitigation based on the subjective judgement of industry participants and simple calculation. To have a more objective result, an improved vulnerability quantitative assessment method was proposed. The overall fraud vulnerability was described by the vulnerability of fraud factors and the health and economic impact of fraud incidents. The fraud factors were related to opportunity, motivation and control measure. Analytic hierarchy process combined with entropy weighting method (AHP-EWM) and artificial neural networking (ANN) to improve judgment accuracy. In the application in Wuchang rice industrial chain, 51 fraud factors were used in the assessment and 10 experts, 36 farmers, 15 suppliers and 15 supervisors were interviewed. Results showed that Wuchang rice industrial chain was highly vulnerable to fraud. The opportunity for fraud was high, the motivation to commit it was moderate, and controls to prevent it needed reinforcing. Fraud vulnerability differed between farmers and suppliers. To reduce the fraud vulnerability, improved regulations and policies and stiffer penalties were strongly recommended.

Opportunities for fraudsters: When would profitable milk adulterations go unnoticed by common, standardized FTIR measurements?

Milk is regarded as one of the top food products susceptible to adulteration where its valuable components are specifically identified as high-risk indicators for milk fraud. The current study explores the impact of common milk adulterants on the apparent compositional parameters of milk from the Dutch market as measured by standardized Fourier transform infrared (FTIR) spectroscopy. More precisely, it examines the detectability of these adulterants at various concentration levels using the compositional parameters individually, in a univariate manner, and together in a multivariate approach. In this study we used measured boundaries but also more practical variance-adjusted boundaries to set thresholds for detection of adulteration. The potential economic impact of these adulterations under a milk payment scheme is also evaluated. Twenty-four substances were used to produce various categories of milk adulterations, each at four concentration levels. These substances comprised five protein-rich adulterants, five nitrogen-based adulterants, seven carbohydrate-based adulterants, six preservatives and water, resulting in a set of 360 samples to be analysed. The results showed that the addition of protein-rich adulterants, as well as dicyandiamide and melamine, increased the apparent protein content, while the addition of carbohydrate-based adulterants, whey protein isolate, and skimmed milk powder, increased the apparent lactose content. When considering the compositional parameters univariately, especially protein- and nitrogen-based adulterants did not raise a flag of unusual apparent concentrations at lower concentration levels. Addition of preservatives also went unnoticed. The multivariate approach did not improve the level of detection. Regarding the potential profit of milk adulteration, whey protein and corn starch seem particularly interesting. Combining the artificial inflation of valuable components, the resulting potential profit, and the gaps in detection, it appears that the whey protein isolates deserve particular attention when thinking like a criminal.

Prevalence of Milk Fraud in the Chinese Market and its Relationship with Fraud Vulnerabilities in the Chain

This study aimed to assess the prevalence of ultra-high-temperature (UHT) processed milk samples suspected of being adulterated on the Chinese market and, subsequently, relate their geographical origin to the earlier determined fraud vulnerability. A total of 52 UHT milk samples purchased from the Chinese market were measured to detect possible anomalies. The milk compositional features were determined by standardized Fourier transform-infrared spectroscopy, and the detection limits for common milk adulterations were investigated. The results showed that twelve of the analysed milk samples (23%) were suspected of having quality or fraud-related issues, while one sample of these was highly suspected of being adulterated (diluted with water). Proportionally, more suspected samples were determined among milks produced in the Central-Northern and Eastern areas of China than in those from the North-Western and North-Eastern areas, while those from the South were in between. Combining the earlier collected results on fraud vulnerability in the Chinese milk chains, it appears that increased fraud prevalence relates to poorer business relationships and lack of adequate managerial controls. Since very few opportunities and motivations differ consistently across high and low-prevalence areas, primarily the improvement of control measures can help to mitigate food fraud in the Chinese milk supply chains.