Disclaimer and The Fine Print
What's included - and not included - in our news roundups and food fraud reports, plus important disclaimers.
The Rotten Apple is operated by a private business with two staff members. We do not offer complete coverage of every food safety or food fraud incident, recall or alert, nor every regulatory update for every country of the world.
We are fallible humans, not robot internet-scraping machines;
We are expert curators;
We value the useful and interesting over the everything;
We recommend you purchase a complete service solution such as HorizonScan by FoodChainID, FoodAkai by Agroknow or SafetyHUD by Mérieux NutriSciences if you need complete coverage of all food safety and food fraud alerts.
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Weekly/monthly news roundups are NOT a complete list of food safety incidents, news, alerts, recalls or regulatory changes
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News Roundups
What you will find
We prioritise news that has actionable information.
We share news about technologies and test methods only if they are implementable (now) and commercially available.
We share news about specific food businesses if it is valuable to other food businesses, but not if it is primarily a public relations piece.
We include regulatory updates only if they are (a) unexpected/unusual (b) likely to affect many countries (c ) indicative of a new trend in regulation.
We include recalls that are (a) unusual (b) multi-national (c ) indicative of a new or emerging risk. For example, recalls of tropane alkaloids in corn snacks in August 2022; the multi-country Ferrero chocolate recall of April 2022; the Cronobacter infant formula recall (USA) of February 2022.
You won’t find
You won’t find “run-of-the-mill” recalls or import/border alerts, of the type that (sadly) happen frequently. For example, we don’t include common recalls like pizza contaminated with hard plastic, or smoked salmon recalled for Listeria, produce detained at the border for too-high pesticide levels, or recalls for labelling errors….
⚠️ You will not get information for every single recall in the whole world ⚠️
❌ We don’t share news about possible new technologies.
❌ We don’t share news where experts “call for change or “call for action”, only news about change that is happening or has happened.
❌ We don’t share news about potential updates or maybe one-day updates to regulations.
❌ We don’t share news about nutrition, obesity and food insecurity (= not enough to eat). Try Marion Nestle’s Food Politics Blog for those.
⚠️ You will not get information for every regulatory update for every food type or every country in the world ⚠️
✔️ If you want details of ALL recalls or targeted information for your product types, you must use a complete solution, such as those provided by FoodChainID’s HorizonScan, Agroknow’s FoodAkai or Mérieux NutriSciences’ SafetyHUD. You could also seek information from public food safety alert portals, which are operated by the governments of many countries, as well as the European Union.
✔️ If you want full coverage of all regulatory updates try https://foodlawlatest.com/
Food Fraud Reporting
What’s included
We share news items that have been published in international media and peer-reviewed journals.
Our lists have a bias toward written media and English-language media.
We do not (cannot) share all incidences of food fraud. By its nature, most food fraud is not publicly reported, even where it has been identified by private companies or government agencies. We do not have access to all sources of information across the globe.
Our criteria for inclusion as ‘food fraud’ is based on the definition below.
Food fraud is when food is sold or traded in a way that is misleading to consumers, or customers or regulatory bodies.
As well as food-specific fraud we also include fraud in related products and services, such as food packaging materials, laboratory reporting, certifications, animal food and agricultural supplies.
⚠️ If you want multilingual coverage or sector/commodity-specific alerts we recommend purchasing a full-fee service, like HorizonScan or FoodAkai or SafetyHUD ⚠️
Free resources
When we share links to resources, this is not an endorsement. Note, however, that we only share resources from organisations that we personally know and trust.
The Rotten Apple receives no financial reward for any sharing of resources, webinars, links or other materials. We are supported by subscription fees.
The Fine Print
While all care has been taken by the author and publisher, not all risks and vulnerabilities will be identified or included.
The author and publisher give no assurance whatsoever that any food fraud risk information or any food safety information provided will meet the requirements of any management system standard, regulatory requirement, code of practice, regulation, rule, inspection process, auditing system or any auditor, certification body or inspector.
Agreement
Subscribers, readers and users of resources provided by or with The Rotten Apple enter into an agreement with Authentic Food Pty Ltd, the publisher of The Rotten Apple newsletter. The aggregate liability of Authentic Food Pty Ltd for all causes of action pursuant to the agreement is limited to the total monetary amount received by Authentic Food Pty Ltd from the subscriber, reader or user. In no event shall Authentic Food Pty Ltd be liable for any direct or indirect or consequential loss or damage or loss of revenue, product, profits, goodwill, bargain or opportunities or loss or corruption of data or loss of anticipated savings incurred or suffered by the subscriber, reader or user, whether caused by negligence or otherwise or whether or not Authentic Food Pty Ltd, or its employees, contractors or agents was or should have been aware of the possibility of such loss or damage.
All intellectual property rights arising out of the provision of the emails, webpages, document(s), audio-casts and/or file(s) are and will remain the property of Authentic Food Pty Ltd or its supplier, where such rights are owned by that supplier.
Authentic Food Pty Ltd makes no warranty in relation to the goods and services provided other than as described in this agreement, or as prescribed by a law that cannot be excluded.
The Rotten Apple is a registered trading name of Authentic Food Pty Ltd, a limited liability business registered in the Commonwealth of Australia. This agreement shall be subject to the laws in New South Wales, Australia and both parties hereby submit to the jurisdiction of the courts of NSW.
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