140 | Food Fraud Disasters: Will Insurance Save You? | 6 New Words for Food Professionals to Know (2024) |
Plus, an 😮 intentional adulteration event involving children's food
This is The Rotten Apple, an inside view of food integrity for professionals, policy-makers and purveyors. Subscribe for weekly insights, latest news and emerging trends in food safety, food authenticity and sustainable supply chains.
Competition: win a mug for Food Safety Day;
Food fraud disasters, will insurance save your food business?;
New words to know in 2024;
Food Safety News and Resources;
Expect the unexpected for Food Safety Day;
Food fraud news, emerging issues and recent incidents.
Hi,
Welcome to The Rotten Apple. If you’re new here, my mission is to keep you up to date with food safety and food fraud news, without ads or boring bits.
I really enjoyed learning more about product recall insurance for this month’s special supplement. It’s about how food product insurance works with food fraud events. Spoiler alert: if your business falls victim to a food fraud event, insurance probably won’t save you.
Also, I explain new jargon in the food media (sogflation? You’ve gotta be kidding!) and why food safety professionals should always expect the unexpected.
This week’s food safety news round-up features a WTF moment, as police investigate allegations of food tampering in a daycare centre, and this week’s food fraud news includes a warning about cage-free eggs.
Thank you for being here,
Karen
P.S. This newsletter just entered its third year of paid subscriptions. Sending a huge thank you to my long-term supporters 👏👏 Maria, Leah, Victoria, Evan, Richard, Anne, Stephanie, Meldy, Rachel, Bruce and Chris 👏👏 - I couldn’t do this without you.
“Reliable, easily accessible, good information which I can read on the go and use in my day to day operations.” Rika (South Africa)
What Does Food Safety Mean to You?
Win a limited edition mug
International Food Safety Day is next Friday, 7th June. To celebrate I’m giving away exclusive Food Safety Champion mugs, designed especially for readers of this publication.
To enter, simply tell us what food safety means to you in 50 words or fewer.
Here’s what food safety means to me…
Food safety is: Everyone knowing what needs to be done to keep food safe and authentic; and doing the right thing, every time. Karen Constable
Send your entries to me at therottenapple@substack.com by close of business this Friday 31st May (USA Pacific Time). The winners will be announced next week.
Food fraud disasters: will insurance save you?
This month’s special supplement explores the world of food recall insurance and its usefulness to businesses that fall victim to food fraud. Click the preview below to read it.
How Product Recall Insurance Works for Food Fraud Events (with 3 Case Studies)
Contents An Introduction to Food Product Insurance Does Product Insurance Get Activated in a Food Fraud Event? Case Studies: Product Insurance Considerations in Three Food Fraud Events Recovering Losses From Suppliers Takeaways for Food Professionals
6 new words for food professionals to know
Have you been baffled by the rash of new words being used by industry commentators lately? Don’t despair, in this article, I explain each of them in 50 words or less.
🍏 Sogflation (I know, right?) refers to price rises in food commodities due to crop damage from heavy rainfall and flooding, and loss of access to productive pastureland for dairy and meat producers.
Example: potato prices have risen in the United Kingdom due to rain-related losses in the 2023-2024 growing season.
🍏 Heatflation refers to price rises due to loss of food harvests due to extreme heat and drought.
Examples: cocoa and peanuts have experienced large price increases, as reported in recent food fraud news; soybean production was down by 10% in 2023 due to drought and Italian wheat and rice yields were down by 30% after the country suffered its worst drought in 70 years.
🍏 Shrinkflation refers to the hidden price rises which occur when food packages get smaller but the price does not drop, and sometimes even increases. France is attempting to make this process more transparent for consumers by requiring retailers to notify them of package size changes and indicate how the price has changed in relation to the weight of food in the pack.
Example: Pepsico reduced the number of crisp packets in its multipacks from 22 to 20 in the United Kingdom in 2023, while also increasing the price.
🍏 Skimpflation refers to a drop in the quality of the food product – the brand owner is “skimping” on ingredients or manufacturing values. For example, by replacing a more expensive vegetable oil with a cheaper blend.
🍏 Stagflation is a term used to describe an economic environment where a recession (two consecutive quarters of contraction in gross domestic product) occurs at the same time as (economic) inflation.
🍏 Excuseflation is when businesses increase their profit margins by raising prices using the excuse of a widely reported phenomenon like bird flu, the Ukraine war, commodity shortages or inflation, even though the phenomenon has not impacted their cost base to the same degree.
Example: Major food retailers in Australia have been accused of using ‘inflation’ and ‘supply chain disruptions’ as excuses to increase their prices, resulting in significant increases to profits.
Food Safety News and Resources
This week’s food safety news round-up includes a major 😮 WTF moment with authorities investigating intentional adulteration events at a children’s daycare facility.
Plus, our usual collection of unusual recalls, helpful free webinars and new research papers, including one on sous-vide safety.
Click the preview below to access it.
Food Safety News and Resources | May
27 May | Food Safety News and Free Resources | Daycare workers spiked children’s food* with melatonin (USA) | Recall: Chocolate Corn Flakes for Hard Food Lumps (Ireland) | Recall: Chia Seeds for Salmonella (USA) | Recall: Sweet snacks for Salmonella in the coating liquid (USA) |
Expect the Unexpected for Food Safety Day
The theme for this year’s food safety day (June 7th) is “Expect the Unexpected”.
Diners in a McDonalds Restaurant in Australia certainly saw the unexpected last week. They noticed a staff member standing at the fries station holding a large, damp, cotton-rope mop head under the heat lamp, directly above the freshly-cooked fries.
McDonalds Food Safety Team*: “We try to mistake-proof our kitchens, but that was unexpected.”
* Not a genuine quote 😉
Below for paying subscribers: Food fraud news, horizon scanning and incident reports
📌 Food Fraud News 📌
In this week’s food fraud news:
📌 89% fraud in certain supplements;
📌 Cage-free egg warning;
📌 Adulteration in watermelon, seafood, turmeric and chilli;
📌 Multifloral versus monofloral honey fraud comparison.