Europe Launches 'Knowledge Centre' To Tackle Food Fraud

The European Commission has launched a new infor­ma­tion-shar­ing sys­tem to tackle the issue of food fraud and qual­ity in the European Union.

Called a ​“knowl­edge cen­tre” and oper­ated by the European Commission’s Joint Research Centre, this is the newest of five such cen­ters that bring together inter­nal and exter­nal experts to tackle a cer­tain issue.

The Knowledge Centre for Food Fraud and Quality has been set up in response to con­sumer con­cerns about food prod­ucts most sus­cep­ti­ble to tam­per­ing or adul­ter­ation like olive oil, wine, honey, dairy, fish, meat and poul­try.

The cen­ter was launched at the European Parliament in Strasbourg, France on March 13 by Tibor Navracsics, the Commissioner for Education, Culture, Youth and Sport.

“Food is one area where sci­ence can very directly and tan­gi­bly demon­strate the ben­e­fits it brings to cit­i­zens,” Navracsics declared at the open­ing. ​“The qual­ity of the food we eat is impor­tant to all of us, and because food fraud is a transna­tional crim­i­nal activ­ity, the EU has a clear role to play in the response.”

The cen­ter’s activ­i­ties will include coor­di­nat­ing mar­ket sur­veil­lance activ­i­ties, oper­at­ing sys­tems for early warn­ing and infor­ma­tion on food fraud, and link­ing the infor­ma­tion sys­tems of the European Commission and EU mem­ber states.

“The launch of the Knowledge Centre for Food Fraud and Quality is an impor­tant step,” Navracsics added. ​“It will help pro­tect the integrity of the EU food chain and safe­guard the qual­ity of food prod­ucts, gen­er­at­ing a clear added-value for Europeans.”

When cases of food fraud are uncov­ered, con­sumer trust is dam­aged and it affects the farmer-to-retailer food sup­ply chain as a result. An exam­ple of food fraud includes the horse meat scan­dal that hit Europe in 2013 when it was dis­cov­ered that many meat prod­ucts labeled beef con­tained horse meat.

But there are also cases of dis­hon­est mar­ket­ing prac­tices like recent rev­e­la­tions into ​“dual qual­ity” where prod­ucts of the same brand and pack­ag­ing actu­ally con­tain dif­fer­ent ingre­di­ents in dif­fer­ent coun­tries.

In tests com­mis­sioned by a Croatian Member of European Parliament, food prod­ucts of the same brand were tested in Croatia and Germany and found to con­tain ingre­di­ents of dif­fer­ing qual­ity or quan­tity.

The Knowledge Centre is work­ing on meth­ods to test dual-qual­ity prod­ucts to step up the fight against such prac­tices.

Olive oil is the most adul­ter­ated food prod­uct in the European Union because it’s a high-value prod­uct with high demand but lim­ited in sup­ply. Fraudsters mix it with low-qual­ity or other veg­etable oils like sun­flower and mis­lead­ingly label it as extra vir­gin.

• European Commission


• New Food Magazine