Considering Fraud Vulnerability Associated with Credence-Based Products Such as Organic Food
Abstract
:1. Introduction
2. Literature Review
“Food safety and quality currently represent a black box for consumers, especially for those who live in urban areas that, by their very nature, are quite far from the production process and who have gradually lost their control over food”.
3. Materials and Methods
4. Results
4.1. Organic Feed Incident, US (2011–2017)
4.2. Organic Raspberries Incident, Chile, (2017)
4.3. Organic Egg Incident, UK and Germany (Multiple Dates)
4.4. Organic Pistachios Incident, Spain, (2019)
4.5. Puss in Boots, Green War, Vertical Bio Incident, Italy, (2007–2011)
4.6. Summary
5. Discussion
- Ensure a robust supervision of control systems in Member States and third countries; increasing cooperation with Member State administrations and third countries;
- Assist Member States in developing and implementing an organic fraud prevention policy using workshops, share lessons learnt and best practices;
- Cooperate with the EU Food Fraud Network and Europol in analyzing the sector to prevent fraud and coordinate investigations; and increase cooperation with competent authorities and law enforcement bodies in third countries;
- Support Member States with guidance on reinforced imports control at border inspection points;
- Promote stronger measures to tackle fraudulent practices through the sanction catalogues;
- Put in place measures to inform consumers and/or to recall from the market products where fraud is identified;
- Develop early warning systems, using artificial intelligence for data mining in EU and Member State databases;
- Develop a database of (organic) certificates of all EU operators, and then relevant third country operators;
- Promote the enrolment of competent authorities and control bodies and the signing of certificates of inspection in TRACES digitally;
- Coordinate regular traceability exercises on organic products in cooperation with Member States, their control bodies and third countries, especially in cases of food fraud suspicion; and
- Assess to what extent the traceability of organic products could benefit from blockchain, digital product passports or other digital technologies.
6. Conclusions
Author Contributions
Funding
Institutional Review Board Statement
Informed Consent Statement
Data Availability Statement
Conflicts of Interest
References
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Economic Drivers | Cultural and Behavioral Drivers |
---|---|
Supply volume and pricing of raw materials | Ethical business culture of the food sector |
Valuable components or attributes i.e., degree of economic differential between food product and substitute—the greater the differential the greater the motivation for fraud | History of non-compliance in the food sector |
Price asymmetries | Organizational strategy of procurer (own company) |
Level of competition in the food sector | Criminal offences associated with customer |
Economic health of food sector | Organizational strategy of supplier |
Economic health of supplier | Ethical business culture of the supplier |
Economic health of procurer (own company) | Criminal offences associated with supplier |
Financial strains imposed on supplier by the procurer (own company) | Victimization of supplier |
Corruption level in country of origin of supplier | |
Corruption level for country of procurer (own company) | |
Criminal offences associated with procurer (own company) | |
Ethical business culture of procurer (own company) |
Perpetrator Motivations | Scope | Mode of Operation | Guardians | Vulnerability | |||
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Economic | Cultural/Behavioral | National/Global | Simple/OCG | Regulator and Enforcement | Surveillance | ||
Organic feed incident US, (2011–2017) Conventional product used to dilute organic product or whole consignment sold as organic when conventional. | Economic differential between organic and conventional products. Price asymmetries | Organizational ethical culture History of non-compliance in the food sector | National | Simple | USDA | Retailer Supply chain actors | Weak institutional trust, regulation, enforcement, and surveillance systems |
Organic raspberries incident, Chile (2017) Conventional product mislabeled and sold as organic. | Organizational ethical culture. History of non-compliance in the food sector | Global | Evidence suggests simple not an OCG | Chilean Customs Canadian regulators | Supply chain actors | Long and complex supply chains relying on ‘institutionalized’ trust Whistle-blower identified issue so required insider to notify authorities | |
Organic egg incident UK and Germany (multiple dates) Conventional product mislabeled as organic product. | Economic differential between organic and conventional products. Price asymmetries | Organizational ethical culture History of non-compliance in the food sector | National | Evidence suggests simple not an OCG | German/UK Government and EU regulators | Supply chain actors | Examples not related but again show the vulnerability of institutional trust |
Organic pistachios incident, Spain (2019) Conventional product used to dilute organic product or whole consignment intentionally mis-sold as organic. | Economic differential between organic and conventional products. Price asymmetries Laundering money | Ethical culture at the network level Corruption at the organizational and network level | Global | OCG | Spanish Guardia Civil, French Gendarmerie Nationale; Europol | Supply chain actors | Intentional modus operandi to deceive |
Puss in Boots, Green War, Vertical Bio incident, Italy, (2007–2011) Highly sophisticated OCG network spanning multiple countries and legal jurisdictions. | Ethical culture at the network level Corruption associated with land title deeds, land lease agreements, creating short term businesses | Global | OCG | Italian Ministry of Agriculture, Central Inspectorate for the protection of food quality and prevention of fraud (ICQRF), but investigated by the Italian Financial Guard | Supply chain actors | Intentional modus operandi to deceive. Guardians (certification bodies) being involved in the fraudulent activity creates a particular vulnerability for consumers |
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Manning, L.; Kowalska, A. Considering Fraud Vulnerability Associated with Credence-Based Products Such as Organic Food. Foods 2021, 10, 1879. https://doi.org/10.3390/foods10081879
Manning L, Kowalska A. Considering Fraud Vulnerability Associated with Credence-Based Products Such as Organic Food. Foods. 2021; 10(8):1879. https://doi.org/10.3390/foods10081879
Chicago/Turabian StyleManning, Louise, and Aleksandra Kowalska. 2021. "Considering Fraud Vulnerability Associated with Credence-Based Products Such as Organic Food" Foods 10, no. 8: 1879. https://doi.org/10.3390/foods10081879
APA StyleManning, L., & Kowalska, A. (2021). Considering Fraud Vulnerability Associated with Credence-Based Products Such as Organic Food. Foods, 10(8), 1879. https://doi.org/10.3390/foods10081879