EC Library Guide on fighting food fraud: Selected publications
A selection of publications from international organisations
- Early warning tools and systems for emerging issues in food safety: Technical background
Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO), 2023.
Early warning (EW) systems have a critical role in the reduction of risks from various hazards. The capability and capacity to identify early signals and emerging food safety risks, and to provide on-time EW that would allow for the mitigation of related upcoming risks have therefore become vital for national and international authorities and organizations dealing with food safety. The developments in early warning systems show a shift from reactive towards proactive systems.
With the rapid development of modern systems fed by numerous, real-time and diverse data, as well as the advancements achieved in artificial intelligence and machine learning techniques, increasingly tested and validated digital methods and models have become available for food safety early warning and analysis. This technical background report enhances the awareness of the available evidence-based innovative digital tools and provides technical background information to support their use for proactive food safety early warning.
- Fact sheets: Food safety | World Health Organization (WHO)
World Health Organization, 2024.
Founded in 1948, the World Health Organization (WHO) is the United Nations agency dedicated to global health and safety. The Organization connects nations, partners and communities to promote health and serve the vulnerable. WHO works with its Member States to achieve the highest level of health for all people by pursuing universal health coverage.
- Fact sheets: Pesticide residues in food | World Health Organization (WHO)
Founded in 1948, the World Health Organization (WHO) is the United Nations agency dedicated to global health and safety. The Organization connects nations, partners and communities to promote health and serve the vulnerable. WHO works with its Member States to achieve the highest level of health for all people by pursuing universal health coverage.
- Food fraud: Intention, detection and management: Food safety technical toolkit for Asia and the Pacific.
Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO), 2021.
Food fraud occurs when a food company intentionally deceive its customer about the quality and contents of the foods they are purchasing. While food fraud is often motivated by economic profit, some forms of food fraud can also pose a direct threat to the health of customers and consumers. Detecting food fraud is a challenge because consumers alone cannot detect them, and food fraudsters are usually innovative in the ways they avoid detection.
In Asia and the Pacific, the risk of food fraud is estimated to be high, due to the high demand for premium quality food combined with an increasingly globalised food supply chain. This document describes the key aspects of food fraud, and discusses a set of measures that food safety authorities can take in order to stop the long-lasting problem of food fraud. Among these, legal interventions combined with technological developments seem to be promising tools in combatting the phenomenon. The authors suggest that the adoption of a definition of food fraud at the national level could support the identification of targeted actions, and that the alignment with Codex Alimentarius food standards can be of support to national food safety authorities in addressing the problem.
- Food safety in a circular economy
FAO, 2024.
Agrifood systems require sustained growth to maintain food security for the global population, while facing unprecedented pressure from challenges of climate change and resource depletion. In this context, evaluating, holistically planning and transitioning to circularity will be critical to improve sustainability and face those challenges. While circular economy initiatives offer considerable promise in improving sustainability and increasing performance, these benefits are juxtaposed by the increasing evidence that contaminants, physical, microbiological or chemical, can get introduced, persist and potentially lead to unsafe food.
Therefore, protecting food safety is key for the success of transitioning our current linear agrifood system to a more sustainable and circular one. This report provides a synthesis of current and emerging evidence of food safety risks in circular agrifood initiatives, with an aim to understand challenges and opportunities to manage and enhance food safety. Food safety has to be an equal performance indicator for any transition, requiring addressing data gaps, focusing research efforts and exploring opportunities for improving food safety outcomes. All parties in the agrifood system need to proactively do their part to ensure agrifood systems develop, by harnessing the innovation in this area, and at the same time produce safe food.
- International and national regulatory strategies to counter food fraud
Roberts, M.T., Viinikainen, T., Bullon, C. Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO), 2022.
Food fraud has beset governments for centuries, and the legal responses to it have been uniquely suited to the sensibilities of the time. This publication follows the concept of food fraud described to occur when a fraudster intentionally deceives a customer about the quality and/or contents of the foods they wish to purchase, and such act is done to obtain an undue advantage, most often economic, for the fraudster.
The vastness and complexity of food fraud, and the versatility in regulatory approaches can challenge national governments in their attempts to develop a coherent, focused approach to food fraud. To respond to this challenge, this paper introduces the available international regulatory guidance and the potential legal strategies at the national and regional level. It identifies and analyses some of the regulatory approaches to food fraud that countries have chosen and pays attention to the role of the private sector in food fraud regulation.
- Last Updated: Apr 25, 2025 6:26 PM
- URL: https://ec-europa-eu.libguides.com/fighting-food-fraud
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