Crime boss reports supply chain-wide offences

After its launch last year, the National Food Crime Unit now had a much better understanding of the food crime threat, Morling told delegates.

“All parts of the food chain are vulnerable, but perhaps not to the same extent,” he said. But Morling declined, at this stage, to identify which sectors of the food chain were most vulnerable to crime.

To underline the prevalence of crime thoughout the food supply chain, he highlighted examples of offences related to: production, manufacture, retail, logistics and food disposal.

Beginning with production, Morling noted livestock movements remained open to criminal activity – despite the attention focused on the sector by the horsemeat crisis.

“I was surprised how vulnerable the animal passporting system still seems to be,” he said.

‘I was surprised how vulnerable’

“To some extent the food industry is in the position of the banking sector or the insurance sector were in maybe 20 or 30 years ago, where there is a continual reliance on trust.”

There needed to be a lot more attention on getting to know suppliers “as they really are rather than as they presented themselves to you”. Businesses should look behind the documents that were presented to them, he advised.

Under the headline manufacture, Morling identified misrepresentation of meat origin and quality standards.

He also identified the adulteration of a dairy products with undeclared additives but, due to legal reasons, was unable to be more specific about the precise nature of the alleged offences.

In the retail sector, the crime boss highlighted the online sale of toxic dietary supplements and sales of counterfeit branded alcohol.

His unit had effectively closed down the online illegal sale of the dietary supplement 2,4 dinitrophenol, he said. The illegal sale of a version of this product had caused six deaths last year, he said.

Caused six deaths

In the logistics sector, Morling highlighted the diversion of waste goods back into the food chain.

In food disposal, the crime boss highlighted the re-dating of expired meat products.

Morling acknowledged he would like to build stronger relationships with food and drink manufacturers to reveal suspected food and drink crimes. Whistle-blowers were “the silver bullet” needed to make progress in this area, he said.

In a bid to forge stronger links with industry, the Food Crime Unit will publish advice on information sharing in a document – Tackling Food Crime Threats Together – later this month.

Anyone with information about food industry crime was invited to contact the unit by telephone, on  0207 276 8787 or email foodcrime@foodstandards.gsi.gov.uk.

Morling was speaking at Food Manufacture’s Food Safety Conference 2016 in London yesterday (Thursday October 13). The event was sponsored by Appetite Learning, GTS, Sealed air, Testo and the University of Greenwich. Don’t miss our snapshot of the conference highlights in tweets.

Meanwhile, watch out next week for our exclusive video interview with Morling on the progress made by his team in fighting food and drink crime since its launch last year.