Food Crime: A Review of the UK Institutional Perception of Illicit Practices in the Food Sector

Alice Rizzuti

doi:10.3390/socsci9070112

Abstract

Food offers highly profitable opportunities to criminal actors. Recent cases, from wine and meat adulteration to milk powder contaminations, have brought renewed attention to forms of harmful activities which have long occurred in the food sector. Despite several scandals over the last few decades, food has so far received scant criminological attention and the concept of food crime remains subject to different definitions. This article assesses regulations in the United Kingdom (UK) and UK authorities’ official reports published between 2013 and 2018 through a review of academic literature published in English. It charts the evolution of the food crime concept, its various meanings, and different harmful activities associated with food crime, which originate from unlawful acts and omissions. This article also points out that further criminological research needs to address the definitional issue of food crime and inform a more integrated policy approach by considering activities beyond food fraud and the protection of food safety.

Highlights

Questionable, harmful and criminal practices, such as fraudulent activities of adulteration and misrepresentation or addition of chemicals, have a long history in the food sector (Phillips and French 1998; Walters 2010; South 2010; Croall 2013; Tourangeau and Fitzgerald 2020).Only within the last two decades has criminology considered these acts and omissions under the label of food crime. food crime has a long history, it has come to public attention only after certain notable public scandals, such as the “horsemeat scandal,” where, in 2013, cow meat across Europe was found to have been adulterated fraudulently with horsemeat
It charts the evolution of the food crime concept, its various meanings, and different harmful activities associated with food crime, which originate from unlawful acts and omissions
Notwithstanding the huge exposure to several food scandals, few people know what food crime means, and criminological interest in the problem has been scant. Practices, such as pollution caused by long-distance food transportation, the sale of adulterated food, the abuse of chemicals, and the exploitation of workers, as well as fraudulent trading behaviors committed by corporations and governments, have been considered more within discourses on food security and the violation of safety regulations rather than activities whose legal and criminological aspects are worth analyzing within a socio-legal perspective (Lang and Heasman 2004; Walters 2010)

Summary

Introduction

Harmful and criminal practices, such as fraudulent activities of adulteration and misrepresentation or addition of chemicals, have a long history in the food sector (Phillips and French 1998; Walters 2010; South 2010; Croall 2013; Tourangeau and Fitzgerald 2020).Only within the last two decades has criminology considered these acts and omissions under the label of food crime. food crime has a long history, it has come to public attention only after certain notable public scandals, such as the “horsemeat scandal,” where, in 2013, cow meat (beef) across Europe was found to have been adulterated fraudulently with horsemeat. Notwithstanding the huge exposure to several food scandals, few people know what food crime means, and criminological interest in the problem has been scant. Practices, such as pollution caused by long-distance food transportation, the sale of adulterated food, the abuse of chemicals, and the exploitation of workers, as well as fraudulent trading behaviors committed by corporations and governments, have been considered more within discourses on food security and the violation of safety regulations rather than activities whose legal and criminological aspects are worth analyzing within a socio-legal perspective (Lang and Heasman 2004; Walters 2010). Little research has been carried out so far to investigate the institutional perception and policy response to food crime activities

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