Food safety and food fraud might seem similar at first glance but a closer look at these two issues quickly reveals that they are two very distinct issues requiring equally unique solutions.
Food safety in this country is generally an understood issue that requires knowing where our food is sourced and catching contaminations as quickly as possible. It mostly involves a system of tracking a particular food to the source and then issuing warnings regarding that specific food. The recent salmonella outbreak that we talked about in a previous article is an example of a food safety matter. These outbreaks are usually directly connected to a pretty immediate public harm. Salmonella leads to a pretty serious sickness. E. coli and other dangerous contaminants directly cause sickness and even death to the consumer. This is often a product of neglect or lax methodology versus intent.
Food fraud on the other hand is usually purposeful and designed by someone attempting to make a greater profit in an underhanded method. An example of this would be adding water to wine or saying that a product came from a location that would justify a higher price point than its actual place of origin. It isn’t usually a mistake but a planned deception. This is part of the reason why a system like block-chain, which might be successful in preventing a widespread food safety violation, might not be very successful in combating food fraud. The human element in food fraud negates a lot of the benefit of a documentation system like blockchain.
Though different, food fraud can also cause personal harm particularly if someone is procuring a particular food for the purpose of medical supplementation. If you are taking an herb for blood pressure for example, it would be pretty awful if you later found out that the capsules you’d been faithfully taking were filled with cornstarch instead. This maybe isn’t as immediate as getting sick from E coli contaminated spinach but there is still a serious amount of harm. We’ve mentioned before situations where peanut oil could be subbed into expensive olive oil and besides the financial deception, if someone is allergic to peanuts, this fraud could have serious and even deadly consequences.
We recently interviewed Mitchell Weinberg who runs a food investigation firm called INSCATECH. You can check out that podcast here. In that interview Mitchell expressed the belief that the best way to combat food fraud is to monitor the production of our food from the source, even if that source is a farm overseas or requires watching to see exactly how a beekeeper is feeding his bees. His firm travels around the world doing exactly that. Short of running this type of organization or partnering with one, what can we as individuals do?
According to Mitchell and what we already know, the best way to prevent food fraud is to get up close and personal with the sources of your food. Shop local. Meet the farmer, meet the beekeeper, visit the vineyard, support a coop or local butcher shop. We’ve been saying it all along but this is truly the best way to combat food fraud. Build a relationship with those responsible for growing the food you eat. Grow some food yourself! The closer to the source you can get, the fewer opportunities for deceit to enter into the equation. Have you had any good experiences shopping local? Share your hints below!