Calendar An icon of a desk calendar. Cancel An icon of a circle with a diagonal line across. Caret An icon of a block arrow pointing to the right. Email An icon of a paper envelope. Facebook An icon of the Facebook "f" mark. Google An icon of the Google "G" mark. Linked In An icon of the Linked In "in" mark. Logout An icon representing logout. Profile An icon that resembles human head and shoulders. Telephone An icon of a traditional telephone receiver. Tick An icon of a tick mark. Is Public An icon of a human eye and eyelashes. Is Not Public An icon of a human eye and eyelashes with a diagonal line through it. Pause Icon A two-lined pause icon for stopping interactions. Quote Mark A opening quote mark. Quote Mark A closing quote mark. Arrow An icon of an arrow. Folder An icon of a paper folder. Breaking An icon of an exclamation mark on a circular background. Camera An icon of a digital camera. Caret An icon of a caret arrow. Clock An icon of a clock face. Close An icon of the an X shape. Close Icon An icon used to represent where to interact to collapse or dismiss a component Comment An icon of a speech bubble. Comments An icon of a speech bubble, denoting user comments. Comments An icon of a speech bubble, denoting user comments. Ellipsis An icon of 3 horizontal dots. Envelope An icon of a paper envelope. Facebook An icon of a facebook f logo. Camera An icon of a digital camera. Home An icon of a house. Instagram An icon of the Instagram logo. LinkedIn An icon of the LinkedIn logo. Magnifying Glass An icon of a magnifying glass. Search Icon A magnifying glass icon that is used to represent the function of searching. Menu An icon of 3 horizontal lines. Hamburger Menu Icon An icon used to represent a collapsed menu. Next An icon of an arrow pointing to the right. Notice An explanation mark centred inside a circle. Previous An icon of an arrow pointing to the left. Rating An icon of a star. Tag An icon of a tag. Twitter An icon of the Twitter logo. Video Camera An icon of a video camera shape. Speech Bubble Icon A icon displaying a speech bubble WhatsApp An icon of the WhatsApp logo. Information An icon of an information logo. Plus A mathematical 'plus' symbol. Duration An icon indicating Time. Success Tick An icon of a green tick. Success Tick Timeout An icon of a greyed out success tick. Loading Spinner An icon of a loading spinner. Facebook Messenger An icon of the facebook messenger app logo. Facebook An icon of a facebook f logo. Facebook Messenger An icon of the Twitter app logo. LinkedIn An icon of the LinkedIn logo. WhatsApp Messenger An icon of the Whatsapp messenger app logo. Email An icon of an mail envelope. Copy link A decentered black square over a white square.

Scottish food and drink sector ‘faces fraud threat’

Scotch beef and whisky are two of Scotland’s most iconic global products
Scotch beef and whisky are two of Scotland’s most iconic global products

One of the world’s leading experts on food safety has warned Scottish food and drink producers that their industry is vulnerable to fraud.

Professor Chris Elliot of Queen’s University, who led the independent review of Britain’s food system following the 2013 horsemeat scandal, told producers at Scotland Food and Drink’s conference in Glasgow that fraud was difficult to detect and no food sector was immune from the threat.

He praised Scottish producers for grasping the importance of authenticity and provenance, and for focusing on producing quality over quantity, but he insisted any claims to be the world’s best needed to be backed up with rigorous inspections and science.

“I guess you all feel you’re audited to death, but most audits aren’t fit for
purpose, because auditing for fraud is very difficult to do and most of them don’t pick it up,” he said.

“Marks and Spencer has introduced what some people refer to as the audit from hell and they have been stunned by the number of integrity issues flagged up since it was introduced.”

Prof Elliot said the major threat for Scotland as a major food exporting nation was the potential for counterfeiting and the knock-on effect that could have on the industry’s reputation.

“It’s about people claiming the product came from Scotland when it didn’t,” he said. “Some of the potential negative impact is that counterfeit food can poison and kill people and it’s always the original brand that gets the blame.

“Every product you produce is at risk, and the more processing that’s involved, the more vulnerable it is.

“Think about the biggest industries in Scotland – whisky and Scotch beef – these are things you’ve based your reputation on.”

He said that the current beef industry proposal to introduce a DNA-based traceability system was good, but he added that it shouldn’t be relied upon because “lots of things can go wrong with that, and it’s also pretty expensive”.

Prof Elliot said: “There are other interventions you can use. I’m a great believer in block chain technology which is a digital traceability system – that’s one of the biggest innovations coming along, and we call it digital DNA.”

nnicolson@thecourier.co.uk