In recent years, the science of food safety has evolved from the continuous supply of safe food to encompass terminology such as food defense and food fraud. Food defense is the protection of food from intentional acts. Food fraud is a collective term used to encompass the deliberate and intentional substitution, addition, tampering or misrepresentation of food, food ingredients or food packaging, or false or misleading statements made about a product for economic gain. Although it’s a lengthy definition, it starts with the intention that’s deliberate and a motivation for economic gain.
The problem with food fraud is, it can go beyond economics to harming public health.Furthermore, it’s a relatively new concept, for which the industry doesn’t have a handle on the scale of the problem yet. What researchers are discovering is that incidences of food fraud are frequent, and the opportunity for fraud is immense.