"Some fear higher world food prices are making food counterfeiting the next big global trend. Counterfeit food is a way to steal millions and put food safety at extreme risk...
The U.S. Food and Drug Administration has its own police force for tackling fraudulent foods and drugs...
At last month’s 9th Annual Anti-Counterfeiting and Brand Protection Summit held in Midtown West, NY, a fact sheet from DuPont said counterfeiting cost U.S. businesses $200 billion to $250 billion annually, affecting 92 percent of Fortune 500 companies. Food and beverages are only a slice of that, of course, but consider that Russia has documented $3.3 billion in annual losses due just to counterfeit vodka, the total for food and beverage products would probably be staggering.
Michigan State University’s Anti-Counterfeiting and Product Protection Program has developed a national data base for tracking counterfeit food by looking for such characteristics as:
-Diluted oil, 16 percent of counterfeit food cases involve olive oil.
-Diluted milk, 14 percent of counterfeit food involved watered down milk.
-Adulterated honey, 7 percent of counterfeit food involved were adulterated sugar and corn.
MSU’s Anti-Counterfeiting program even has a top ten list for food most likely to be phony. Making the list are: vanilla extract, maple syrup, grape wine, apple juice, coffee, orange juice, saffron, honey, milk, and olive oil."
Food Safety Endangered Worldwide by Increased Food Counterfeiting
By Dan Flynn
The U.S. Food and Drug Administration has its own police force for tackling fraudulent foods and drugs...
At last month’s 9th Annual Anti-Counterfeiting and Brand Protection Summit held in Midtown West, NY, a fact sheet from DuPont said counterfeiting cost U.S. businesses $200 billion to $250 billion annually, affecting 92 percent of Fortune 500 companies. Food and beverages are only a slice of that, of course, but consider that Russia has documented $3.3 billion in annual losses due just to counterfeit vodka, the total for food and beverage products would probably be staggering.
Michigan State University’s Anti-Counterfeiting and Product Protection Program has developed a national data base for tracking counterfeit food by looking for such characteristics as:
-Diluted oil, 16 percent of counterfeit food cases involve olive oil.
-Diluted milk, 14 percent of counterfeit food involved watered down milk.
-Adulterated honey, 7 percent of counterfeit food involved were adulterated sugar and corn.
MSU’s Anti-Counterfeiting program even has a top ten list for food most likely to be phony. Making the list are: vanilla extract, maple syrup, grape wine, apple juice, coffee, orange juice, saffron, honey, milk, and olive oil."
Food Safety Endangered Worldwide by Increased Food Counterfeiting
By Dan Flynn
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