Food System Transparency

Law, Science and Policy of Food and Agriculture

Gabriela Steier, Adam Friedlander, Gabriela Steier, Adam Friedlander

• Publisher: CRC Press
• Year: 2021
• ISBN:
  9781000384512
• Edition: 1
• Topic: Technology & Engineering
• Subtopic: Forestry
• Index: Technology & Engineering

This book brings together an international group of agriculture and food lawyers and scientists to define the field of Food System Transparency in three parts: the big picture, food safety and health, and the global view. Each part adds to the whole but zooms in through a unique lens. Investigating social, economic, political, scientific and legal frameworks, this comprehensive volume addresses topics such as food authenticity, agroecological evaluations, and consumer protection. Interwoven themes of transparency contextualize concepts of food safety, information sharing and regulatory opportunities at a local and global scale. Editors' notes provide blended legal and scientific commentary to facilitate further discussion and context within the classroom.

Advantages of this volume include:

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• Chapters written by foremost international experts in their fields

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• Editors' notes written for classroom use and background information

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• Figures and tables providing illustrations of important concepts

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• Case studies delivering practicality and in-depth analysis to current events

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• A special chapter on COVID-19 and its implications for the food system

This book is important reading for graduate-level students, legal scholars, nonlegal academics, advocates for food system transparency and resilience, agroecology and environmental conservation, and practitioners in any cross-disciplinary areas relating to food policy. It will be of interest to all those who seek to deepen their understanding of the concepts and trends surrounding the information that centers around our food system, both domestically in the United States and the European Union, as well as in many major trading nations such as China.

Check out the Support Materials tab on www.routledge.com/9780367440367 for a short video previewing some the key themes in the book.

part one

The big picture

chapter one

Food fraud and food defense: Food adulteration law and the sustainable development goals (SDGs)

Darin Detwiler

Contents

• Introduction
• Tea and coffee: a brief history of adulteration policy in Britain
• Of meat and men: a brief history of adulteration policy in United States
• Modern progress on food fraud and food defense: food poisoning and bioterrorism
• Defining modern food reputations
  • Food quality
  • Food safety
• Food fraud
  • Food defense
  • Food security
    • Crimes related to food fraud and food defense
    • US food company federal fines
    • US food company trials in federal court
• Food fraud and defense vs. “intentional adulteration”
• References

Editors' Note: The is-and-is-not of Food System Transparency and the FDA's Food Safety Modernization Act (FSMA)

In the first chapter of this volume, Dr. Darin Detwiler introduces the fundamental concepts of food fraud and food defense to shed light on the collaborative work needed to continue removing bad-faith actors in the global supply chain and protect public health. Detwiler analyzes the historical, geographical, regulatory, political, legal, scientific, social, and economic factors associated with food fraud and defense to highlight how food system transparency has modernized within the last three hundred years.

While the first British food fraud laws were developed for tea and coffee, these laws influenced American history and eventual food safety expectations for global consumers. By exploring the role of United States Department of Agriculture (USDA) Chief Chemist Dr. Harvey Washington Wiley's “Poison Squad” experiments in the late 19th century and Upton Sinclair's novel “The Jungle” at the turn of the 20th century, Detwiler aims to magnify how America's first consumer protection laws pioneered current food safety expectations.

This chapter concludes by identifying recent foodborne outbreaks and the criminal and civil implications associated with these events. In an effort to reduce Norovirus, Salmonella, Listeria, Escherichia coli O157:H7, Campylobacter, and Hepatitis A infections, as well as protect consumers from severe allergic reactions, Dr. Detwiler introduces how the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) modernized the food regulatory system with the passage of the landmark Food Safety Modernization Act (FSMA) of 2011.

The following chapter provides a solid basis for all those seeking to explore food fraud, food authenticity, and food defense. Gaining this foundational understanding is at the backbone of comprehending what food system transparency means. The is-and-is-not of food system transparency begins with this following masterfully crafted chapter.

Introduction

Not even as far back as fifty years ago, American consumers still made food-buying decisions based on three primary questions – “Will it satisfy my desire for taste?” “Will it be enough to fill me up?” and “Can I afford it?” Today, consumers ask new questions in their quest for validation of their food source's reputation.

A number of forces changed the nation's food supply system over the past hundred years, or so. America had already shifted from a predominantly agrarian and rural society to an industrial one where the largest percentages of the population lived in denser urban centers. The arrival of immigrants at the turn of the 20th century not only diversified foods and flavors, but also played a significant role in the development of the produce industry on the West Coast. The Great Depression, the Dust Bowl, and two World Wars brought about rationing, new methods for preserving foods, and new policies regarding food sustainability. The invention of new technologies prompted radical changes in how we related to food in our homes and out in town. Foods could now be frozen for ease in mass distribution and retail of entire meals. In the 1950s and 1960s, the automobile brought about fast food, where people went to the restaurants and could eat inside or outside – still in their cars. Half a century later, cars (along with computers and cell phone apps) would bring food from the same restaurants and from grocery stores to people's front doors.

Perhaps these changes in technology reflect a change in consumer behavior. In 2015, the U.S. Department of Commerce released data that showed how, for the first time ever, the amount of money that American consumers spent at restaurants and bars overtook the amount spent at grocery stores (Jamrisko, 2015). Even more recent research highlights that Millennials (those people born between 1981 and 1996) tend to focus purchase decisions on convenience – such as ready-to-eat foods – rather than making food at home. This age group also tends to spend less money, overall, on food at home and makes fewer trips to the grocery store (Kuhns & Saksena, 2017).

With the myriad changes in food from the farm to the fork, and in how consumers’ behavior around and related to food, opportunities for failure and for crime have not only increased, but have, unfortunately, become reality. Once taken for granted in terms of its safety, food has acquired a history of leaving far too many families to face the true burden of disease and of crime. Digging deeper into the history of policy for food fraud and adulteration can shed more light on the thoughts and language that shaped current policy.

Tea and coffee: A brief history of adulteration policy in Britain

Drinking tea became commonplace in London and spread throughout England by the late 17th century. Through the 18th century, the British replaced beer and ale with tea as their national drink. Developing a tea ceremony, the British established teatime in their culture, customs, and etiquette. Further, tea was viewed as part of an elevated diet for the social and wealthy. With this notion came the drive for fine ceramic and porcelain production, as well as for import of the pottery. Soon, after tea became hugely expensive and heavily taxed, British lawmakers took action to curb the growing fraud in tea and in coffee. The correlation between teas’ evolution to a commodity food and its adulteration illustrates food system transparency issues and principles that permeate many other foods.

In 1718, for instance, Great Britain's Parliament passed the Adulteration of Coffee Act of 1718 (5 Geo. 1 c. 11) making it illegal to debase coffee. While this is the short title of the Act, the full title is “ADULTERATION OF COFFEE ACT of 1718 c. 11. An Act against clandestine Running of uncustomed Goods, and for the more effectual preventing of Frauds relating to the Customs” (Mews, Gordon, & Spencer, 1896).

The Act imposed a rather hefty penalty for any

…evil-disposed persons who at the time or soon after roasting of coffee, make use of water, grease, butter, or such like material whereby the same is made unwholesome and greatly increased in weight, to the prejudice of His Majesty's Revenue, the health of his subjects, and to the loss of all fair and honest dealers

(Lely, 1894)

Here, one can find evidence from over three hundred years ago that the British Parliament had a keen awareness of not only the different times prior to consumption that a food item (in this case, tea) could be adulterated, but also that a range of means exists to do so. Also important is that they not only acknowledge in this act the impact on public health, but also the possible economic impact. This was amended in 1724 with “An Act for more effectual preventing Frauds and Abuses in the Public Revenues” (11 Geo. 1, c. 30). Whereas the earlier Act focused on wholesomeness of the product, it did not address situations where a characteristic other than wholesomeness was at issue. This new amendment addresses not only tea:

No dealer in tea, or manufacturer or dryer thereof, or pretending so to be, shall counterfeit or adulterate tea, or cause to procure the same to be counterfeited or adulterated, or shall alter, fabricate, or manufacture tea with terra japonica [also known by many names including “catechu” – it is an extract of acacia trees used variously throughout many centuries as a food additive and dye] or with any drug or drugs whatsoever, nor shall mix or cause or procure to be mixed with any leaves, other than leaves of tea, or other ingredients whatsoever, on pain of forfeiting and losing the tea so counterfeited, adulterated, altered, fabricated, manufactured, or mixed, and other thing or things whatsoever added thereto or mixed or used therewith, and also the sum of one hundred pounds

(Lely, 1894)

But also, coffee was the subject of adulteration that could result in large fines for both roasters, mixers, dealers, and sellers guilty of adulteration if they,

in order to increase the weight of roasted coffee, … defraud and impose upon such as bur the same, divers evil-disposed persons, at the time or times of roasting such Coffee, … do use or mix, or cause to be used or mixed therewith, or do add or cause to be added thereto, butter, lard, grease, water, or other materials, whereby such coffee is rendered less wholesome, to the prejudice of the health of his majesty's subjects, and to the loss and injury of all honest and fair dealers therein: …

(Lely, 1894)

Whereas this new amendment included coffee and increased the penalty amount, it also included much greater depth of clarity in terms of what qualifies as adulterating the commodity. Six years later, this Act was again amended to focus on additional commodities with the Act to prevent Frauds in the Revenue of Excise, with respect to Starch, Coffee, Tea, and Chocolates (1730) (4 Geo. 2, c, 14). This time, the description of the illegal acts included much more clarity:

whereas several evil-disposed persons do frequently dye, fabricate, or manufacture very great quantities of sloe leaves, liquorish leaves, and the leaves of tea that have been before used, or the leaves of other trees, shrubs, or plants in imitation of tea, and do l...