FOOD SAFETY AND QUALITY ASSURANCE: FOOD FRAUD AND FOOD DEFENSE
Diagram
Two deliberate threats, two motives
Food fraud
Food crime for money: a food is changed, replaced or mislabelled to make a profit.
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Food defense
Protection from deliberate harm: someone who deliberately contaminates food, tampers with a pack, or sabotages a process.
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The difference
Fraud is done for money and defense is done to cause harm, but fraud can still harm health, so both need a plan.
Figure 1: Food fraud cheats for money; food defense stops deliberate harm. Drawn in our own style from the FTN Food Safety and Security notes, Unit 6, and from Fortin, Food Regulation: Law, Science, Policy, and Practice.
Introduction
Food fraud and food defense are the two deliberate threats to food, and both protect food from people who act on purpose, but they differ in motive. Food fraud is crime for money: a food is changed, replaced or mislabelled to make a profit. Food defense is protection from deliberate harm: someone contaminates food, tampers with a pack or sabotages a process to hurt people, damage a business or cause fear. The motive is different, but the two overlap, because a fake ingredient can carry an allergen, a poison or no nutrition at all.
The FTN Food Safety and Security notes, Unit 6, give each its own plan, VACCP for fraud and TACCP for defense, and Fortin, Food Regulation, gives each its own chapter. This article follows those sources.
Quick comparison
Table 1: Food fraud compared with food defense
| Aspect | Food fraud | Food defense |
|---|---|---|
| Motive | Money: to make a profit by cheating | Harm: to hurt people, damage a business, or cause fear |
| Act | Substitution, dilution, mislabelling and counterfeiting | Deliberate contamination, tampering with a pack, or sabotage of a process |
| Who does it | A supplier or maker who fakes the food for gain | An attacker, who may be an outsider or an insider |
| Harm to health | Can harm health: a fake ingredient can carry an allergen, a poison, or no nutrition at all | Meant to harm health: the contamination is the point |
| Harm to the buyer | The buyer is cheated: the food is not what it claims to be | The buyer is harmed: the food is made unsafe on purpose |
| High risk foods | Honey, olive oil, spices, milk powder and fish are high on the list in most places, because they are costly, scarce or easy to fake | Any food that is open and easy to reach, at the step where an attack would cause the widest harm |
| Plan | A food fraud plan, sometimes called VACCP, short for Vulnerability Assessment Critical Control Points | A food defence plan, sometimes called TACCP, short for Threat Assessment Critical Control Points |
| How the plan works | Ask which ingredients are most likely to be faked, then buy from approved suppliers, test high risk ingredients, check deliveries, and keep records that prove the origin | Think like an attacker, name the threats, judge how likely and serious each one is, pick the points where control is essential, set the controls, and check them |
| Controls | Approved suppliers, testing of high risk ingredients, delivery checks, and origin records | Locked doors, visitor records, staff checks, sealed ingredient stores, locked water tanks, cameras, and tamper evident packaging |
| Secrecy | The plan can be shared with suppliers and auditors | The plan must be kept secret from outsiders, because the hazard is a person who learns and adapts |
Scientific explanation
Definition
Food fraud is food crime for money: a food is changed, replaced or mislabelled to make a profit, and it is different from food defence because the motive is money, not harm, though it can still harm health. Food defence deals with harm done on purpose: someone who deliberately contaminates food, tampers with a pack, or sabotages a process, and the motive may be to hurt people, to damage a business, or to cause fear.
Working principle
A food fraud plan, sometimes called VACCP, asks which ingredients are most likely to be faked, because they are costly, scarce or easy to fake. Honey, olive oil, spices, milk powder and fish are high on that list in most places. Then the business picks controls: buy from approved suppliers, test high risk ingredients, check deliveries against the order, and keep records that prove the origin. A food defence plan, sometimes called TACCP, follows steps like HACCP but for deliberate threats: name the threats, judge how likely and how serious each one is, pick the points where control is essential, set the controls, and check them. Food defence starts with thinking like an attacker: where is the food open and easy to reach, who can walk into the factory, and which step would cause the widest harm if it were attacked? The answers point to controls: locked doors, visitor records, staff checks, sealed ingredient stores, locked water tanks, and cameras at key points. Tamper evident packaging is a defence control: a seal that shows when a pack has been opened. A food business needs three systems working together: the food safety system, built on prerequisite programmes and HACCP, stops accidental hazards; the food defence plan stops deliberate harm; and the food fraud plan stops cheating for money.
Apparatus
The books used here name no laboratory apparatus for telling the two apart, so no apparatus list is given.
Measurement procedure
Neither plan is measured by one laboratory test. A fraud plan is checked by testing high risk ingredients, checking deliveries against the order, and keeping records that prove the origin. A defence plan is checked by its controls: access records, seal checks, and reviews of the plan, which must be reviewed often, because the hazard is a person who learns and adapts.
Factors affecting readings
For fraud, price and scarcity decide the risk: a raw material offered far below the market price is a warning sign, because honest material cannot be sold that cheaply, and costly, scarce or easy to fake ingredients are the most likely targets. For defence, access decides the risk: food that is open and easy to reach, strangers left alone near open food, and stores left open are the weak points. A sudden change in a worker’s behaviour, a store left open, or a delivery that arrives with a broken seal are all signals to act on, not to ignore.
Formulas and calculations
The books used here give no formula for this comparison, so no formula or worked calculation is given.
Industrial applications
- Food fraud: checking honey, olive oil, spices, milk powder and fish, the ingredients most likely to be faked.
- Food fraud: testing high risk ingredients and checking deliveries against the order.
- Food fraud: keeping records that prove the origin of each ingredient.
- Food defense: locking doors, keeping visitor records, and giving access to the line only to people who need it.
- Food defense: sealing ingredient stores and water tanks, and using tamper evident packaging.
- Food defense: watching for a broken seal on a delivery, a store left open, or a sudden change in a worker’s behaviour.
Advantages and limitations
- Food fraud plan, advantage: it stops cheating for money before it reaches the eater, by approved suppliers, testing and origin records.
- Food fraud plan, limitation: the fraudster tries to hide the fraud, so detection depends on tests that see what the eye cannot.
- Food defense plan, advantage: it stops deliberate harm by thinking like an attacker and controlling access to the food.
- Food defense plan, limitation: the plan must be kept secret from outsiders, and it must be reviewed often, because the attacker learns and adapts.
FAQ
What is the main difference between food fraud and food defense?
Food fraud is crime for money: a food is changed, replaced or mislabelled to make a profit. Food defense stops deliberate harm: someone contaminates food or tampers with a pack to hurt people or damage a business.
Can food fraud harm health?
Yes: a fake ingredient can carry an allergen, a poison, or no nutrition at all, even though the motive is money, not harm.
What is VACCP?
Vulnerability Assessment Critical Control Points, the food fraud plan: it asks which ingredients are most likely to be faked, and picks controls for them.
What is TACCP?
Threat Assessment Critical Control Points, the food defence plan: it names deliberate threats, judges them, and picks the points where control is essential.
Why must a food defence plan be kept secret?
Because the hazard is a person who learns and adapts, so a plan printed on the factory wall for all to read has already failed.
References and further reading
- FTN subject: Food Safety and Security, Unit 6: Food Security, Food Defence and Food Fraud.
- Neal D. Fortin, Food Regulation: Law, Science, Policy, and Practice, Wiley, 2016 (Google Books page read)
- Bee Wilson, Swindled: The Dark History of Food Fraud, from Poisoned Candy to Counterfeit Coffee, Princeton University Press, 2020 (Google Books page read)
