What do we know about compliance with food safety rules in restaurants? We completely rely on restaurant owners and rare appearances of government officials to reassure us about compliance with these rules. Despite being such a common issue, few restaurants have the proper tools to deal with this type of issue.
Food Fraud: What does it mean?
Food fraud is when a business or individual intentionally takes actions and deceives purchasers to gain an undue advantage through violation of the rules. These unlawful actions against the agri-food chain legislation may also constitute a risk to human, animal or plant health, animal welfare or to the environment.
Scandals such as the “Rotten Rhinoceros Meat” Haji Biryani House in Sonaimuri, Noakhali who cooked biryani for a prolonged period with ‘Rotten Rhinoceros Meat’. Due to increasing consumer demand for Biryani, the customers crowded the shop all the time. As a result, the owner used this opportunity to mislead the customers. This scandal has drawn worldwide attention.
Food Adulteration in Bangladesh:
At the Institute of Public Health, a research into adulteration was conducted in 2002. The results were shocking. More than half of the total tested samples were adulterated; 100% samples of butter oil and banaspati dalda, 90% condensed milk/sweetmeats, 72.3% ghee and honey, and 57.2% cow’s milk were adulterated.
Different types of food fraud:
Four key operative criteria are used to identify whether a case should be considered as fraud or non-compliance: if a case matches all four criteria, then there would be a suspicion of fraud.
Violation of BD rules Deception of customers Economic growth Intention
These criteria correspond to the rules currently in place in the Member States to report frauds:
1. Violation of BD rules: Entailing a violation of one or more rules codified in the Bangladesh Food Safety Laws and Regulations Pure Food Ordinance of 1959 and Pure Food Rules of 1967.
2. Deception of customers: This criterion includes some form of deception of the customers (example: altered colouring or altered labels, which mystify the true quality or, in worse cases even the nature of a product). Moreover, the deceptive element may also come in the form of a public health risk as some real properties of the product are hidden (for example, in the case of undeclared allergens).
3. Economic Growth: The fraudulent act brings direct or indirect economic advantages for the perpetrator.
4. Intention: This criterion can be verified through a number of factors which give strong grounds to believe that certain non-compliances are not happening by chance. For example, such as the replacement of a high-quality ingredient with a lower-quality one. Even if there is a possibility in the production process that the substance may be debased by a lower-quality product, significant debasement of the product would still prove to be strong enough grounds to prove fraudulent activity.
The ability to recognise fraudulent activity presents a challenge. Not only due to the various forms it can take but also owing to the need to distinguish deliberate acts from accidental or unintentional ones, which could equally affect the safety or quality of the foodstuff concerned. A more extreme aspect with implications for defence, concerns intentional adulteration ideologically motivated to harm through bio-terrorism.
How can we prevent food adulteration?
Bangladesh Food Safety Authority carries out regular surveillance, monitoring and random sampling of food products to prevent food adulteration. Bangladesh restaurant sector is a noticeable size business in Bangladesh, the most sustainable approach to manage food fraud would be if all restaurant associations come together to combat this issue.
Dinebd can play an integral role in supporting restaurants and are eager to develop the real food safety situation in Bangladesh.
