Food Defense

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Coordination across the agricultural, food safety, cybersecurity, and emerging cognitive security landscape must become a top priority and be seamlessly integrated across the international and national biodefense enterprise. Part 2 of this column series explores food safety and business decision-making in the face of cognitive security threats.

The latest UK Food Security Report (UKFSR) has been published by the UK Government. A trend noted in the report is that, despite Campylobacter causing the most foodborne illnesses, outbreak detection is hindered by the lack of a required national typing scheme.

The EU Joint Research Center (JRC) has developed new methods for detecting adulteration in six popular herbs and spices, as well as new reference materials to help identify fraudulent fish products.

The UK Food Standards Agency (FSA) has reported the arrest of five men in London after trucks full of allegedly illegal smoked meat carcasses were discovered. 

The European Food Fraud Community of Practice (EFF-CoP) is a newly formed research and innovation coalition funded by the EU and coordinated by University College Dublin, the goal of which is to combat food fraud by gathering thousands of diverse stakeholders to share knowledge and collaborate on different activities.

The UK Food Standards Agency’s National Food Crime Unit has made an arrest as part of an ongoing investigation into a case of suspected food fraud.

A recent study of salmon sold at Seattle, Washington grocery stores and sushi restaurants found 18 percent of samples to be mislabeled overall, with one-third of “wild-caught” salmon sold at sushi establishments being mislabeled. 

As a result of Operation OPSON 2024—an EU-wide coordinated effort targeting fraudulent and counterfeit foods—22,000 tons of food and 850,000 liters of beverages, totaling €91 million, were removed from the market.

Marking the intersection between human decision-making and biosecurity, deliberate attacks present risks like the poisoning or adulteration of food products, or cyberattacks targeting control or process systems. Collectively, "cognitive security"—or protecting the human decision-making process—needs to be a consideration for industry, government, and academia as an element of food security. 

The European Commission’s annual report on EU Member States’ official food safety controls in 2022 highlighted successes, areas for improvement, and challenges.