Which? invites APA to talks about Food Fraud

Most consumers spend 8 seconds or fewer when deciding whether to buy one food product or another. Marketing, the business of persuading consumers which choice to make, is becoming increasingly sophisticated and economically important.

The Consumers’ Association Which? magazine recently invited representatives from the Association of Public Analysts, Trading Standards and others involved in monitoring food standards, to a working lunch at its London HQ, to talk about food fraud and labelling. Which? is considering focusing on food standards / food fraud in the coming months, because it is concerned at the relatively low priority this topic seems to have for the Food Standards Agency.

APA President, Alan Richards and along with colleagues from the Public Analyst laboratories in Worcester, Dundee and West Yorkshire, attended what proved to be a lively, informative and very useful meeting with Sue Davies, Chief Policy Adviser for Which?.  Apart from its legal and economic implications, food fraud can have serious public health, safety or cultural repercussions. 

Among the wide range of examples of food fraud by substitution discovered routinely by PA’s and discussed at the meeting were:

• pork and poultry found in takeaways sold as lamb
• fried catfish in cod or haddock fish suppers
• spirit substitution in pubs, clubs and restaurants

Labelling can also contribute to food fraud, examples include:

• poor labelling of “alcopops”, particularly in relation to the legibility of alcohol level and health warnings and also the use of colours
• confusing nutrition information, for example, unrealistic portion sizes being used when quoting nutritional values in chocolate and breakfast cereals
• levels of salt in crisps
• visibility of the legal name of the foodstuff being reduced to a minimum.

There was also brief discussion of the potential “dumbing down” of the profession by the FSA’s plans to dilute the legal requirements for Public Analysts to be as highly qualified as they are at present. This matter has been raised through Parliamentary Questions in both the Westminster and Holyrood Parliaments in the past year and was the subject of a Westminster Hall debate in the early summer. As a result, it will be discussed again at a meeting with the APA, MPs, FSA and other “key stakeholders” in Westminster in early November, before a public consultation is launched later this year.