Food Fraud in 2025: Top 10 ingredients in the spotlight
With case numbers rising year on year, food fraud remains one of the biggest challenges facing global food systems. Fraudsters are taking advantage of increasingly complex supply chains, as well as global events such as climate change, regional conflicts and new tariff policies. This threatens consumer safety, and exposes food companies to heavy financial risks.
What counts as food fraud?
Food fraud is a broad term, but essentially it covers any deliberate and intentional action relating to food, taken to deceive customers for financial gain.
It includes acts of:
Adulteration – adding undeclared or inferior substances to a food product to increase volume or reduce cost.
Mislabelling – falsely describing a food product or its origin, composition, or production method.
Substitution – replacing a valuable ingredient or component with a cheaper or different one.
Counterfeiting – copying a genuine food product’s packaging, branding, or certification marks to sell a fake version.
Tampering – altering the condition or packaging of a food product, for example to extend the ‘best before’ date.
Dairy in top spot for 2025
To date this year, dairy is the ingredient group category that has had the highest number of reported incidents of food fraud. Within dairy, cheeses have been particularly vulnerable (14 reported incidents so far in 2025), followed by cow’s milk and cream (7), butter and ghee (6), cow’s milk powder (2), and cream and yoghurt made from mammalian milk other than cow’s milk (3).
Reported incidents in the dairy group this year come from Turkey, India and Pakistan, with adulteration being the dominant fraud type.
Same top five in 2025 as 2024
Despite some slight shift in their rankings, the same five ingredient categories have remained in the top places for highest number of reported incidents to date this year. Alongside dairy, these include meat and poultry products, herbs and spices, olive oil, and alcoholic beverages.
The types of fraud observed within these categories were largely consistent with those of previous years, showing how persistent and profitable these practices remain for perpetrators. Species substitution was the main act of food fraud affecting meat and poultry products – most commonly with horse meat, which is a reoccurring trend, year after year.
In the herbs and spice category, adulteration with colourants and bulking agents (starches and plant material of alternate botanical origin) was widespread. Olive oil was mainly affected by mislabelling, as well as adulteration with added colourants and oils of alternate botanical origin. Lastly, counterfeiting and adulteration with methanol were the main fraud types observed in the alcoholic beverages category.
What can food manufacturers do?
While food fraud remains a complex and evolving challenge, there are a number of practical tools and approaches that manufacturers can use to prioritise and mitigate risks within their supply chains.
Incident scanning
Regularly reviewing food-fraud incident reports and intelligence sources can help identify high-risk ingredients and emerging threats. Incident scanning allows manufacturers to detect patterns, anticipate vulnerabilities, and adjust their risk assessments accordingly.
Take advantage of digital tools
FACTS is an agent for FoodChain ID’s Food Fraud Database – a comprehensive collection of incidents and inferences for nearly 6 000 ingredients, updated weekly and vetted by experts. Digital solutions such as this help companies perform incident scanning efficiently and objectively.
Strengthen supply chain controls
It can be valuable to implement additional testing or auditing as part of supplier onboarding and verification processes – especially when sourcing raw materials affected by supply disruptions or price volatility. Likewise, it is important to train procurement and QA teams to recognise fraud red flags such as price anomalies, inconsistent documentation, and changes in packaging or labelling. Enhancing supply chain controls improves transparency and reduces the likelihood of fraudulent or non-compliant materials entering your supply chain.
Review scientific publications for unexpected adulterants
Regularly reviewing scientific literature for emerging food-fraud trends and unexpected adulterants acts as an important horizon-scanning tool. This proactive approach supports prevention by providing a broader understanding of potential risks that may not yet have surfaced in incident databases.
Monitor global events
Global developments such as climate events, regional conflicts or trade policy changes often create economic pressures that may drive food fraud. Monitoring these international events supports faster responses to potential supply-chain risks before they escalate.
Takeaway message
Authenticity has become a competitive advantage. Companies that invest in transparency, science-based verification and supplier partnerships build lasting consumer trust in their brand.
FACTS offers a number of practical tools to support food fraud prevention. If you need assistance with food fraud, contact our expert team.