There are many types of fraud that criminals utilise in order to illegally obtain money, and according to recent reports, UK criminals are beginning to turn their attention to food fraud. In fact, a report that was commissioned after the horse meat scandal has shown that this could just be the tip of a criminal iceberg, and that criminal groups were using food fraud as one means of raising finances. It is believed that criminals have moved from drugs to food fraud because it attracts much lower penalties, and it may be viewed as easier to get away with.
Food fraud is one of many forms of fraud that are utilised by criminal gangs to raise money illegally. In this type of fraud, certain food types are passed off as being other types of food and this enables them to sell at low cost and maximise profits from the sales.
The horsemeat scandal that broke in the UK is the latest, and most high profile example, of food fraud. During this scandal, many frozen meals that were supposed to contain minced beef were, in fact, discovered to contain horsemeat and an investigation showed that criminal gangs may have been responsible for the fraud. Investigations are continuing, and special groups have been set up to help identify fraud and tackle it, as well as the criminals that are guilty of it.
It is widely believed that gangs have moved from the drugs trade to food fraud, because the returns can be high while the potential penalties are much lower. What’s more, while there is considerable global attention and investment in the fight against drugs, the resources put into food fraud are lower, even though they have increased since the horsemeat scandal.
The horsemeat scandal was well publicised because the difference between the advertised product and the actual product was considered massive. However, other cases have seen more subtle fraud that is more difficult to identify. For example, Italian olive oil may contain oil from olives from different countries, and while the difference may sound slight, it means that the olives can be purchased cheaply but the resulting olive oil sold for high prices.