A multi-billion pound criminal enterprise lurks amid our supermarket shelves. Food crime not only harms our wallets but threatens public health.
It includes activities such as mislabelling a product, replacing a food or ingredient with another substance that is inferior, and even poisoning.
This is a global concern because of how food crime is evolving. The complexity of food supply chains, the globalisation of food markets, and a lack of transparency heightens the vulnerability of the food sector.
So, rethinking how we combat food crime by using technology is imperative. Food crimes now inflict an estimated US$40 billion (£31 billion) in damages globally each year.