The food in your kitchen cupboards may not be what it seems.
“I guarantee you any time a product could be considered something more expensive. It would be that simple,” Larry Olmsted, author of “Real Food/Fake Food,” told CNBC.
Fraudsters motivated by economic gain covertly infiltrate the global food market through a variety of means, including counterfeiting, dilution, substitution, and mislabelling.
Not only does this hurt consumers’ wallets, but it puts public health and safety at risk.
By some estimates, food fraud affects at least 1% of the global food industry at a cost of up to $40 billion annually, according to the Food and Drug Administration.
“We may not know the overall impact of food scams because so much of what scammers do is hidden from us and has been for centuries.” Kristi Lorevic, senior director of the Foods Program at the US Medicines Convention, told CNBC.
Even the US Food and Drug Administration says it can’t estimate how often this fraud occurs or its economic impact.
“Be aware of the product you put on you or plug into the wall,” John Spink, director of the Food Fraud Prevention Research Center, told CNBC.
Between 2012 and 2021, the most common type of food fraud was lying about animal origin and dilution or substitution, both of which account for 16% of incidents recorded by the Food Safety Monitoring Food Chain ID.
For example, dilution may entail adding a cheaper vegetable oil to an expensive extra virgin olive oil.
“If you drink Scotch, I can’t tell you [the] The difference between a $50 bottle and a $5,000 bottle. So, I know I can be bluffing at this point,” Spink said.
The Food Fraud Prevention Think Tank suggests five questions the consumer can ask themselves to reduce their exposure to product fraud.
- What type of product? Use extreme caution with any product you put on your body, swallow or plug into a wall.
- Can you identify the difference between the products?
- Do you know a retailer or supplier? Do you trust me?
- Do you shop online? If so, did you find the resource online from a trusted source?
- Complain. Is the resource legitimate? If so, they’ll want to know.
Watch the video above to learn more about the different types of food fraud, how the industry prevents risks, what consumers can do, and where fraud in the olive oil, spice and seafood markets may be lurking.