Food fraud and vulnerability assessments

Food fraud is the intentional, deceptive misrepresentation of foods for economic gain. It is the outcome of the convergence in time and place of a motivated offender and a suitable target in the absence of capable guardians. Fraud vulnerability of businesses depend on openings for undesirable events resulting from weaknesses or flaws in the system. The mapping of a company’s or chain’s fraud vulnerabilities is a first step towards fraud management. In this chapter the food fraud concept based on the criminological routine activity theory is described. Furthermore, key elements and individual fraud factors are discussed, as well as differences in fraud vulnerability across supply chains and their tiers.