	Background

Food fraud, or the act of defrauding buyers of food and food ingredients for economic gain—whether they be consumers or food manufacturers, retailers, and importers—has vexed the food industry throughout history. Some of the earliest reported cases of food fraud, dating back thousands of years, involved olive oil, wine, spices, and tea. These same products continue to be associated with fraud, along with a range of other products. It is not known conclusively how widespread food fraud is in the United States or worldwide. In part, this is because those who commit fraud do not intend to cause physical harm and want to avoid detection. Most incidents go undetected since they usually do not result in a food safety risk and consumers often do not notice a quality problem. Although the vast majority of food fraud incidents do not pose a public health risk, there have been fraud cases that have resulted in actual or potential public health risks. Perhaps the most widely cited, high-profile cases have involved the addition of melamine to high-protein feed and milk-based products to artificially inflate protein values in products that may have been diluted. For example, in 2007, evidence emerged that adulterated pet food ingredients from China had caused the deaths of a large number of dogs and cats in the United States. This was followed by reports that melamine-contaminated baby formula had sickened an estimated 300,000 Chinese children, killing a reported 6 infants. Reports also indicate fish and seafood fraud may be widespread in some markets, consisting mostly of the mislabeling or substitution of a higher-valued species with something different from and inferior to the expected species, possibly with a fish species which could be associated with some types of food poisoning or exposure to certain allergens. The Grocery Manufacturers Association (GMA) estimates that fraud may cost the global food industry between $10 billion and $15 billion per year, affecting approximately 10% of all commercially sold food products. Fraud resulting in a food safety or public health risk event, however, could have significant financial or public relations consequences for a food industry or company. For the purposes of the workshop, FDA defined "economically motivated adulteration" as the:
fraudulent, intentional substitution or addition of a substance in a product for the purpose of increasing the apparent value of the product or reducing the cost of its production, i.e., for economic gain. The Grocery Manufacturers Association (GMA) provides the following definitions of "economic adulteration" as part of its report on consumer product fraud in the food, beverage, and consumer product industry:
Economic adulteration is defined as the intentional fraudulent modification of a finished product or ingredient for economic gain through the following methods: unapproved enhancements, dilution with a lesser-value ingredient, concealment of damage or contamination, mislabeling of a product or ingredient, substitution of a lesser-value ingredient or failing to disclose required product information. Available Data and Information Repositories

		Review of Available Database Information

Efforts are ongoing to compile and capture current and historical data on food fraud and EMA incidents through the creation of databases and repositories. Federal Activities Involving Food Fraud

In the United States, no single federal agency and no single U.S. law or statute directly addresses food fraud or "economically motivated adulteration" of food and food ingredients. Instead, food fraud and intentional adulteration of food is broadly addressed through food safety authorities and border protection and import authorities and activities. Accordingly, FDA and USDA are the principle federal agencies that are working to protect the food supply from food safety risks, including both unintentionally and intentionally introduced contamination, in conjunction with enforcement of FDA and USDA laws by the U.S. Department of Homeland Security (DHS) as part of its border inspections. Other agencies also have played a role in food fraud prevention. Congressional Actions Involving Food Fraud

Congress has introduced a number of bills intended to address concerns about food fraud, mostly with respect to concerns about a particular food or food ingredient, but has not introduced legislation that would specifically address fraud in a comprehensive manner.
Food fraud, or the act of defrauding buyers of food or ingredients for economic gain—whether they be consumers or food manufacturers, retailers, and importers—has vexed the food industry throughout history. Some of the earliest reported cases of food fraud, dating back thousands of years, involved olive oil, tea, wine, and spices. These products continue to be associated with fraud, along with some other foods. Although the vast majority of fraud incidents do not pose a public health risk, some cases have resulted in actual or potential public health risks. Perhaps the most high-profile case has involved the addition of melamine to high-protein feed and milk-based products to artificially inflate protein values in products that may have been diluted. In 2007, pet food adulterated with melamine reportedly killed a large number of dogs and cats in the United States, followed by reports that melamine-contaminated baby formula had sickened thousands of Chinese children. Fraud was also a motive behind Peanut Corporation of America's actions in connection with the Salmonella outbreak in 2009, which killed 9 people and sickened 700. Reports also indicate that fish and seafood fraud is widespread, consisting mostly of a lower-valued species, which may be associated with some types of food poisoning or allergens, mislabeled as a higher-value species. Other types of foods associated with fraud include honey, meat and grain-based foods, fruit juices, organic foods, coffee, and some highly processed foods.
It is not known conclusively how widespread food fraud is in the United States or worldwide. In part, this is because those who commit food fraud want to avoid detection and do not necessarily intend to cause physical harm. Most incidents go undetected since they usually do not result in a food safety risk and consumers often do not notice a quality problem. Although the full scale of food fraud is not known, the number of documented incidents may be a small fraction of the true number of incidents. The Grocery Manufacturers Association estimates that fraud may cost the global food industry between $10 billion and $15 billion per year, affecting approximately 10% of all commercially sold food products. Fraud resulting in a food safety or public health risk event could have significant financial or public relations consequences for a food industry or company.
There is no statutory definition of food fraud or "economically motivated adulteration" (EMA) of foods or food ingredients in the United States. However, as part of a 2009 public meeting, the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) adopted a working definition, defining EMA as the "fraudulent, intentional substitution or addition of a substance in a product for the purpose of increasing the apparent value of the product or reducing the cost of its production, i.e., for economic gain." Efforts are ongoing to compile and capture current and historical data on food fraud and EMA incidents through the creation of databases and repositories.
Over the years, Congress has introduced a number of bills intended to address concerns about food fraud for a particular food or food ingredient. Such legislation has not addressed food fraud in a comprehensive manner. However, although no single federal agency or U.S. law directly addresses food fraud, a number of existing laws and statutes already provide the authority for various federal agencies to address fraud. Currently, food fraud is broadly addressed through various food safety, food defense, and food quality authorities as well as border protection and import authorities across a number of federal agencies. FDA and the U.S. Department of Agriculture are the principle agencies that are working to protect the food supply from food safety risks—both unintentionally and intentionally introduced contamination—in conjunction with border protection and enforcement activities by the U.S. Department of Homeland Security. Other agencies also play a role.