Britain’s food safety watchdog has launched a new hotline for people to report suspected cases of food fraud, part of wider plans for the government to crack down on the crime, which reportedly costs the economy £2 billion every year.
Food fraud is when a supplier purposely deceives a customer about the quality or contents of the food being sold, often for monetary gain, and the crime can pose a direct threat to the health of consumers.
Offering a new freephone number to the public, the Food Standards Agency (FSA) said it hopes the new initiative will give people the confidence to report the crime as well as help “strengthen the collective response” of the UK.
Emily Miles, the chief executive officer of the FSA, said in May the organisation would be exploring new ways to tackle the crime after several fraud allegations surfaced involving the meat sector.
Miles and the FSA said they will also be working with the industry to encourage whistleblowing, improve how information is shared between third-party auditors of food businesses and explore how intelligence-based alerts can warn businesses and supply chains about food fraud.
Loscoe Chilled Foods, the East-Midlands-based meat supplier, fell into administration earlier this year after it became embroiled in a scandal in which the National Food Crime unit launched an investigation into how it labelled it products.
Three people were arrested in March after Booths, the northern-based supermarket, found pre-packaged slices of meat and deli products had been labelled as British despite being sourced from South America and Europe.
If you suspect food fraud, report it to Food Crime Confidential always available on food.gov.uk or by phoning 0800 028 1180 (0207 276 8787 for non-UK mobiles and calls).