United Kingdom-Missleading food labelling.

UNITED KINDOM-MISSLEADING FOOD LABELLING.

The Food Fraud Advisory Unit (FFAU) is a group of 16 officials with extensive skills and experience in carrying out food fraud investigations, most of whom are practicing local authority enforcement officers. The FFAU members have agreed, with the support of their employers, to provide advice, on request, to any UK local authority involved in investigating food fraud. This could include any illegal activity relating to food or feed.

Coomon food frauds involve the recycling of animal by-products back into the food chain and selling beef and poultry with an unknown origin. Deliberate misdescription of food, while not necessarily unsafe, deceives the consumer as to the nature of the product, says the FSA. An example the agency gives is products substituted with a cheaper alternative, for example, farmed salmon sold as wild.

The FFAU represents the latest development in a series of resources the Agency is making available to help combat food fraud.