Food crime is a risk to public health and to the global reputation and economy of the Scottish food and drink industry. Although it is recognised that the UK is an extremely safe food environment, no supply chain is immune to the potential threat that food crime poses.
Our food crime prevention strategic plan for 2024-27 shows how we plan to identify, understand and put into action ways to reduce the risk of food crime happening in Scotland.
How can I protect my business against food crime?
We have developed our free online Food Crime Risk Profiling Tool to help businesses build resilience against food crime.
There are seven food crime techniques which represent food crime. There is also document fraud which is an enabling crime. These techniques and their definitions are listed in the table below.
| Crime technique | Definition |
|---|---|
| Theft | The dishonest appropriation of food, drink or feed products from their lawful owner with an intention to benefit economically from their subsequent use or sale |
| Unlawful Processing | The slaughter, preparation or processing of products of animal origin outside of the relevant regulatory framework |
|
Waste Diversion |
The unauthorised diversion of food, drink or feed intended for disposal back into relevant supply chains |
| Adulteration | Reducing the quality of a food product through the inclusion of a foreign substance, with the intention either to make production costs lower, or apparent quality higher |
| Substitution | Replacing a food product or ingredient with another substance of a similar but inferior kind |
| Misrepresentation of origin, quality, provenance or benefits | The marketing or labelling of a product so as to inaccurately portray its quality, safety, benefit, origin or freshness |
| Misrepresentation of durability date |
The false declaration of the freshness, or expiration date, of a product |
|
Document Fraud |
The use of false or misappropriated documents to sell, market or otherwise vouch for a fraudulent or substandard product. |
Three lines of defence
The threat to industry and consumers in Scotland takes many forms and varies from low level criminality to complex fraud across supply chains. As part of tackling food crime,there are three key lines of defence to make sure that food is both safe and authentic.
- Food businesses and industry
- Consumers
- Regulators and law enforcement
Each of these can help with:
- Raising awareness of food crime
- Developing the intelligence picture
- Sharing intelligence and information with partners
- Identifying instances of criminality
- Supporting investigations, including multi-agency collaboration
- Prevention and Enforcement activity
- Prosecution of offenders
- Development of fraud prevention technologies
- Supply chain surveillance
Reporting food crime
If you suspect a food crime has taken place, you can report this to us completely anonymously. You can contact us by:
- Phoning the Scottish Food Crime Hotline on 0800 028 7926
- Completing the online form
- Emailing foodcrime@fss.scot to speak with a Food Crime team member in confidence
Food crime
Food crime can involve selling food or drink that has been tampered with, or using cheaper ingredients than the ones listed on the label.
Report food crime toolkit
How to support our campaign
Food incidents
What food incidents are and what needs to be done when they happen.