Reporting food fraud

Food fraud is committed when food is deliberately placed on the market, for financial gain, with the intention of deceiving the consumer. Although there are many kinds of food fraud the two main types are:

• the sale of food which is unfit and potentially harmful, such as:
  • recycling of animal by-products back into the food chain
  • packing and selling of beef and poultry with an unknown origin
  • knowingly selling goods which are past their 'use by' date

• the deliberate misdescription of food, such as:
  • products substituted with a cheaper alternative, for example, farmed salmon sold as wild, and Basmati rice adulterated with cheaper varieties
  • making false statements about the source of ingredients, i.e. their geographic, plant or animal origin

Food fraud may also involve the sale of meat from animals that have been stolen and/or illegally slaughtered, as well as wild game animals like deer that may have been poached.

If you work in the food industry and you are blowing the whistle in the public interest on wrongdoing where you work, please

Email the National Food Crime Unit:

• email: foodfraud@foodstandards.gsi.gov.uk

The FSA's policy on whistleblowing explains how you will be protected from detrimental treatment or victimisation from your employer under the Public Interest Disclosures Act 1998.