Fighting Food Fraud – from Hassall to Horsemeat

Food fraud has been around since food was traded and the further the distance that food travels the more likely it is to be adulterated. Frederick Accum and later Arthur Hill Hassall were among the first to apply science to the detection of food fraud leading to the 1860 Act to prevent the adulteration of food and drink.

Today’s food fraudsters can apply highly sophisticated techniques and make it very difficult, if not impossible, for the public to detect that food fraud has occurred. Public Analysts need therefore to apply similarly sophisticated analytical techniques to detect it.

As Past President of the Association of Public Analysts and with over 25 years of experience in this field, Dr Duncan Campbell will look at both historical and current aspects of food fraud and the techniques used to detect them in this lecture to mark the 60th Anniversary of the Association.