Food fraud is as old as the food trade itself and is bound up with issues of food safety, food integrity and authenticity. For this reason, it has been touched upon by Codex in various ways for many years. Now, the text of new draft guidelines on the prevention and control of food fraud has been adopted at Step 5 by the 47th Codex Alimentarius Commission in Geneva, Switzerland.

The aim of the work, which was approved by CAC44 in 2021, was that the Codex Committee on Food Inspection and Certification Systems (CCFICS) would provide guidance to competent authorities and food businesses on the cross-cutting issue of prevention, detection, mitigation, and control of food fraud, to help protect the health of consumers, and to ensure fair practices in the food trade, in line with the Codex mandate.

In defining what is meant by “food fraud”, the draft text provides a list of six different types of fraud, which consists of:

• addition - adding an undeclared substance to a food product that would not ordinarily be present, or present in that quantity, in the food;
• substitution - replacing a food or a food ingredient, in whole or in part with another ingredient, in whole or in part (most often of lower value) without declaring it;
• dilution - adding a material to make another ingredient present at a lower concentration than represented;
• counterfeiting - making an imitation of a food product with the intention to deceive or defraud;
• misrepresentation - labelling or marketing a food product in a manner that is false, misleading, or deceptive; and
• concealment - hiding or not disclosing information on the safety, suitability, or quality of food ingredients or food products.

Did you know?

The Codex step procedure for elaborating standards has 8 steps. At Step 5, the proposed draft standard is submitted through the Secretariat to the Executive Committee for critical review and to the Commission with a view to its adoption as a draft standard. In taking any decision at this step, the Commission gives due consideration to the outcome of the critical review and to any comments that may be submitted by any of its Members regarding the implications which the proposed draft standard or any provisions thereof may have for their economic interests.

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CAC47 webpage

The step procedure for elaborating Codex standards