Food fraud is any intentional deception using food. This can include adulteration (e.g. adding hot pressed olive oil to virgin olive oil), substitution (e.g. selling tilapia as sea bass) or mislabelling (e.g. giving the wrong geographical origin). Food fraud across the agri-food chain cost European Union businesses billions of euros every year, can pose a threat to public health and can undermine consumer and business confidence. Food fraud incidents that featured prominently in mainstream media include the adulteration of honey with sugar syrup or mixing infant formula with melamine.

To support the fight against food fraud, the Knowledge Centre for Food Fraud and Quality of the Joint Research Centre of the European Commission (JRC) has been publishing monthly food fraud reports since 2016, listing food fraud incidents reported in international media. These reports are based on data from the European Media Monitor, an automated system which collects information from approximately 17 000 sources across 190 countries world-wide.

In support of the Watson project (a 3-year project, funded by the Horizon Europe programme, aimed at tackling fraudulent practices in the food supply chain), the JRC has now compiled all 1892 food fraud incidents listed in the food fraud reports since 2016 into one dataset and developed an interactive application. This application allows filtering the dataset by time, geographic location, geographical indications (PDO or PGI), food category and category of fraud. It therefore allows to reveal patterns such as number of incidents in specific countries, and the prevalence of food fraud types like grey market and counterfeit. It therefore should enhance situational awareness and support evidence-based decision-making for stakeholders in food fraud prevention and policy design.

According to Arantza Respaldiza, one of the scientists that developed the application, “the food fraud reports give a good snapshot of the current situation in food fraud, but are not suited to detect trends. This application allows a detailed investigation of trends in time and which food categories or regions are reporting most food fraud. This is crucial in assessing the risk of future incidents.”

Policy makers, industry and consumers can use the application to assess which areas are most susceptible to fraud. This allows them to focus their attention on these areas, effectively limiting the incidence of fraud. The dataset will be continuously updated with new food fraud incidents.