GMA and Battelle launches food fraud prevention tool

US-based Grocery Manufacturers Association (GMA) has partnered with the Battelle Memorial Institute to introduce the new EMAlert tool to prevent food fraud.

Headquartered in Columbus, Ohio, Battelle is a privately owned, non-profit, applied science and technology development company.

EMAlert is a secure web-based software tool that enables food producers to easily analyse and handle the harmful effects of their individual, company-specific economically motivated adulteration (EMA) or food frauds.

According to an estimate, the world economy is hit by food frauds worth $49bn every year.

The estimation also suggests that nearly 10% of the food that consumers purchase is possibly adulterated.

GMA science policy and regulatory affairs vice president Shannon Cooksey said: "The impact on any particular company can range from minor economic damage to the potential loss of economic viability of the organisation.

"GMA joined with Battelle, the world’s largest non-profit R&D organisation, to develop a better way of prioritising the actual risks to specific commodity supply chains at any time, so that decision makers can best apply their resources to the vulnerabilities of greatest importance."

EMAlert provides a suitable resource to the food makers in order to help them meet the requirements of the US Food and Drug Administration’s (FDA’s) Food Safety Modernisation Act (FSMA) Preventive Controls for Human Food Rule.

In September, certain businesses need to begin complying with the rule, as well as develop and implement a food safety system that would include food hazard evaluation.

Battelle principal research scientist Ashley Kubatko said: "EMAlert works by providing quantitative estimates of an organisation’s vulnerability to EMA for each commodity included in the analysis based on a combination of characteristic attributes and subject matter expert-based weightings.

"The approach focuses on predicting fraudulent tendencies similar to approaches used by Battelle for the US Department of Homeland Security to predict terrorist tendencies and preferences."

Food safety and defense professionals might develop alternative strategies, such as recognising suppliers from a more favourable region of the world or investing in research in order to establish identity tests for targeted commodities.