How to minimize the risk of food fraud due to coronavirus

How to minimize the risk of food fraud due to coronavirus

This webinar was originally hosted by Select Science in April 2021.

The food supply chain can be daunting due to its extraordinary complexity. With this complexity comes the opportunity of food fraud. The coronavirus crises amplify the opportunities for fraudsters dramatically as in-person audits are often not possible to uncover hidden rooms and storage areas or forbidden materials. This places a significant burden on food analysts to find food fraud through laboratory testing.

In this webinar, Dr. Bert Pöpping, Managing Director at FOCOS, will explore the recent developments in the molecular methods field and put these methods in the context of standardization and existing public and private law. Dr. Pöpping will highlight the activities of government bodies, not for profit organisations like AOAC, ILSI and USP, and private law schemes like BRC, IFS, and SQF, and emphasize how the development of methods for species determination can help to detect adulteration.

About the speaker:

Dr. Pöpping

Dr. Pöpping is the managing director of the strategic food consulting company FOCOS. He serves as scientific advisor to the AOAC International Food Fraud Taskforce and is co-chair of the ILSI Europe Food Authenticity Working Group. He is the vice-chair of the USP Food Chemical Codex Food Ingredients Expert Committee and serves as an expert on several governmental method working groups relating to food fraud. Dr. Pöpping has an extensive background in food analysis and his previous roles included Chief Scientific Officer and Director Scientific Development in leading global food safety testing networks. He regularly publishes in peer-reviewed journals (https://www.focos-food.com/publications/).

Key learning points:

  • The new risks for food fraud in the supply chain due to coronavirus
  • How these risks can be mitigated
  • Current governmental developments and method approaches of AOAC International
  • How molecular methods can significantly contribute to uncovering food fraud in the supply chain