What is food crime?
Food Crime involves serious and intentional dishonestly that impacts on the safety or authenticity of food, drink or animal feed. The techniques used in food crime are:
| Crime technique | Definition |
|---|---|
| Theft | The dishonest appropriation of food, drink or feed products from their lawful owner with an intention to benefit economically from their subsequent use or sale |
| Unlawful Processing | The slaughter, preparation or processing of products of animal origin outside of the relevant regulatory framework |
| Waste Diversion | The unauthorised diversion of food, drink or feed intended for disposal back into relevant supply chains |
| Adulteration | Reducing the quality of a food product through the inclusion of a foreign substance, with the intention either to make production costs lower, or apparent quality higher |
| Substitution | Replacing a food product or ingredient with another substance of a similar but inferior kind |
| Misrepresentation of origin, quality, provenance or benefits | The marketing or labelling of a product so as to inaccurately portray its quality, safety, benefit, origin or freshness |
|
Document Fraud |
The use of false or misappropriated documents to sell, market or otherwise vouch for a fraudulent or substandard product |
As a consumer, you can play a part along with food businesses and industry, regulators and law enforcement, in ensuring food in Scotland is safe and authentic.
If you suspect a food crime has taken place, you can report this to us completely anonymously. You can contact us by:
- Phoning the Scottish Food Crime Hotline on 0800 028 7926
- Completing the online form
- Emailing foodcrime@fss.scot to speak with a Food Crime team member in confidence
Find out more about our food crime strategy in Scotland and our priorities for 2020/21.
Food Crime
Find out more about food crime and how to report it
Report Food Crime Toolkit
How to support our campaign
Report Food Crime - Leaflet
Help us prevent food crime.
Food incidents
A food incident occurs when there are concerns about threats to the safety or quality of food and/or feed.
