The European Commission has published its latest food fraud report. We analysed their data and put it into perspective with previous reports.
AAC, short for Administrative Assistance and Cooperation system, is a dedicated IT tool that provides a platform for members of the EU Food Fraud Network to exchange information on non-compliances and potential intentional violations of the EU agri-food chain legislation. The competent authorities of member countries can place requests for information here. The system is used increasingly by the member states, counting 157 requests in 2016 and 292 in 2019. However, it appears that it is most frequently used by the same member states year on year: Germany, France and Belgium. The European Commission itself also placed a high number of requests for information this year.
The number of requests per product category varied significantly over the years though. While the top categories for food fraud remained largely the same over the years, there is a significant increase of issues with fruits and vegetables. This may be also due to an increase in organic fraud.
Mislabeling remains the top category for non-compliance every year from 2016-2019. This is followed by the categories “Replacement/Dilution/Addition/Removal” and “Unapproved treatment”
