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THE Food Standards Agency has begun a comprehensive inquiry into food fraud in Britain. Trading standards officers throughout the country have been reporting irregularities from fake organic chickens to labels written in felt pen on certified foods at market stalls.
Some butchers have also been trying to cash in on the higher value of organic meat, which can sell at prices up to five times those of meat from a conventionally reared animal.
A nationwide survey into bogus organic foods by trading standards will not be completed until the new year, but the agency has already been alerted to possible scams.
With consumers demanding high quality and healthy food and people willing to pay a premium, David Statham, head of enforcement at the agency, has recognised that the market is one in which cheats are prepared to take a chance.
Investigations are being conducted to root out the fraudsters and to assess the scale of illegal activity around the country and on the internet.
They follow the disclosure in The Times yesterday that shoppers have been duped into buying bogus free-range eggs and paying double the usual prices for eggs from factory farms on the Continent.
The agency is investigating a range of activities. There is particular concern about the authenticity of beef being sold under premium labels such as Aberdeen Angus or Scotch beef when it is imported meat from South America or poor-quality beef from Britain.
Similarly the alarm has been raised over farmed salmon being passed off as wild salmon, as rogue traders cash in on the public demand for higher-priced ethically produced food.
The growth in popularity of expensive corn-fed chickens has also caught the attention of enforcement officers. It is an easy label to put on a bird that has not eaten a crumb of corn. A new isotope test can show whether a bird has had a corn diet.
Mr Statham said: “Three studies are under way and we expect the results in March. We are particularly concerned about geographic origin of beef because what it is on the label does not mean where it has come from. If you are buying a prime piece of English or Scotch beef and it has come from South America you are being defrauded.”
It will distribute new testing kits that will enable trading standards officers to speed up the identification of fakes without spending hours on a paperwork trail.
A test now exists to distinguish organic vegetables from non-organic. A product can now be tested to see whether a nitrogen-based fertiliser had been used during production. Any vegetable showing traces of the chemical will not meet the organic standard.
Similarly the agency, in collaboration with the Central Science Laboratory in York, is just completing a test that can detect a piece of organic meat from meat from a conventionally farmed animal. Animals on organic farms may only have one therapeutic dose of an antibiotic in a year. The new tests can detect the build up of anti- biotics from a piece of meat.
David Pickering, of the Trading Standards Institute, said the new FSA tests would speed up the analysis of foodstuffs and reduce the amount of paperwork.
Sales of organic food in Britain are rising by 12 per cent a year and are worth £1.2 billion annually. With sales of organic meat, home-produced and imported, valued at more than £200 million, enforcement agencies said they were not surprised that rogue traders were seeking to move in on such a lucrative sector. A chicken worth £2 or £3 can fetch £10 or £11 with an organic label. Ordinary steak that sells for £10 to £15 per kilogram can fetch as much as £29.59 if it is said to be organic.
Peter Melchett, director of policy at the Soil Association, the leading organic organisation, welcomed the inquiry but added that consumers should be aware of differences between free-range and organic chicken. He said: “There is very little evidence that free range birds spend a lot of time outdoors. They are not like organic birds which are encouraged outside on fresh pastures most of the time. Most people think free-range means chickens on grass, but it’s usually on mud or gravel.”
The agency is also so worried about fake health marks being stamped on meat and the potential for condemned meat to be recycled.
A food fraud task force, chaired by Philip Barlow, an academic, has been asked to study all industry practices and to ensure that there are sufficient safeguards in place to protect human health. Dr Barlow is also to review the present laws and advise whether the penalties are adequate to deter fraudsters. A report is expected by next summer.
