Cases of food fraud will rocket if the number of public analysts (PAs), which have the responsibility of applying food fraud testing methods, dwindles, the Association of Public Analysts has warned (APA).
"It's getting to crisis point," said APA president Alan Richards, who claimed the number of qualified PAs now practising around the country had halved to only 39 in just over 10 years. "We have been referred to as the food police. Once you take the police away, there's a great temptation to defraud."
As well as putting the public at risk, manufacturers could also suffer, he said. "It's as much a risk for manufacturers buying in ingredients, or partly processed products," he claimed. "If food fraud is discovered, they become part of the chain of evidence."
Most of the funding that the PAs needed was in the hands of local authorities, but food safety was not a priority for them, said Richards.
"PAs are under threat," said Food Standards Agency (FSA) authenticity programme advisor Sandy Primrose speaking at a recent FSA food fraud seminar. "The Agency is developing [food fraud] methodologies and if there's not demand for it, it'll be lost."
Leatherhead Food International's chief executive, Dr Paul Berryman - a former PA in Birmingham - has also raised concerns that many of Britain's PAs were reaching retirement age.
"Fundamentally there will always be problems with fraud where there's a cheaper adulterant that can be used," said Eurofins' David Hammond. "Where we've used methodologies to squeeze the bad guys into a corner, they'll find a way round that. It's very important for the FSA to maintain an active structure."
The FSA is expected to launch a public consultation on the future provision of public analyst services in the UK shortly.
There are around 240 FSA projects looking at food fraud.