Food Fraud Prevention Professional Development Group
Mission Statement: To serve as a multidisciplinary forum for open discussion and exchange of information among collegiate, regulatory and industry regarding the unique challenges associated with the developing area of food fraud prevention, including food safety and economic implications.
Meeting Information
Virtual: TBD
In Person: IAFP 2025
July 27, 2025, Huntington Convention Center, Cleveland, Ohio
How to Join
Involvement in committees and professional development groups (PDGs) offers Members the opportunity to share a wealth of knowledge and expertise. Members of committees and PDGs are the architects of the Association structure. They plan, develop and institute many of the Association's projects, including workshops, publications and educational sessions. Technical challenges facing the food safety industry are discussed, examined and debated. Members may volunteer to serve on any number of committees or PDGs that plan and implement activities to meet the Association's mission.
Membership on a PDG is voluntary (not by appointment) and may vary from year to year.
IAFP Members can manage their PDG involvement by logging in to the IAFP Web site. At the Member Dashboard, click “Edit Profile.” Your profile has two tabs: Contact Info and Professional Info. Select the Professional Info tab and update the PDGs you would like to participate in. We highly recommend that you contact the PDG chairperson for each group to let them know you have joined their PDG.
Non-members can contact Dina Siedenburg, dsiedenburg@foodprotection.org, for more information.
1. Approve Angela Anandappa as the Chair of the Food Fraud PDG.
Board Response: Board Response: Agree.
2. Approve Katie Zammit as the Vice Chair of the Food Fraud PDG.
Board Response: Board Response: Agree.
2023 Board Response to Recommendations
None.
2022 Board Response to Recommendations
None
2021 Board Response to Recommendations
1. Recommend approval of John Spink as Chair and Steven Gendel as Vice Chair of the Food Fraud PDG.
Board Response: Agree.
2. The PDG recommends editing the title of the group to be “Food Fraud Prevention Professional Development Group.”
Board Response: Agree.
Board Response: Agree.
3. The PDG recommends editing the mission statement to read “To serve as a multidisciplinary forum for open discussion and exchange of information among collegiate, regulatory and industry regarding the unique challenges associated with the developing area of food fraud prevention, including food safety and economic implications.”
Board Response: Agree.
2020 Board Response to Recommendations
None
2019 Board Response to Recommendations
The Food Fraud PDG recommends the Executive Board approve the selection of Karen Everstine and Clare Menezes and Chair and Vice Chair, respectively.
Board Response: Agree
2018 Board Response to Recommendations
We ask the Board to review and approve the Food Fraud
PDG – Student Scholarship program we have developed.
Board Response: The Board will contact the Food Fraud PDG to further review this program before dissemination to the students.
2017 Board Response to Recommendations
We ask that the Board approve the newly developed Food Authenticity and Integrity PDG with the following changes addressed in items 2–4.
Board Response: Agree.
We ask that the Board approve the PDG’s name change from “Food Authenticity and Integrity PDG” to “Food Fraud PDG.” The members felt that the masses would understand this name better, especially in the international arena. We felt it would be better to address authenticity and integrity in the drivers/scope.
Board Response: Agree.
We ask the Board to approve the PDG’s new mission statement: The mission of the Food Fraud PDG is to serve as a multidisciplinary forum for open discussion and exchange of information among collegiate, regulatory and industry regarding the unique challenges associated with the developing area of food fraud, including food
safety and economic implications.
Board Response: Agree.
We ask that the Board approve Neil Bogart as the elected PDG Chair and Steven Sklare as the PDG Vice Chair.
Board Response: Agree.
Webinars
Understanding Tech Traceability: How it Reduces Food Fraud (and Other) RisksMay 13, 2021
This webinar will focus on tools available to enhance risk-based decision-making and supporting transparency and authenticity in food supply chains. Effective supply chain management requires transparency and documentation of a host of information: certifications, certificates of analysis, inventory, recalls, returns, and supplier management, to name a few. The speakers will address the need for effective management of a variety of information for successful supply chain oversight and ensuring food integrity, and they will discuss some approaches to this challenge. They will also cover the importance of industry standardization, as well as providing insight into the FDA’s New Era of Smarter Food Safety Blueprint and taking a targeted look at the FDA Leafy Green Pilot.
Slides and Recording are no longer available.
Presenters
TJ Gupta, PresenterTagOne, United States
Kelly Kell PresenterGS1 US, United States
Karen Everstine, ModeratorDecernis, United States
Handling Food Fraud in e-Commerce - Food Fraud Series Part 5 of 5 Jun 27, 2019
This session explores ways of dealing with the risks and intelligence offered by e-Commerce.
E-commerce exposes brand owners and retailers to various risks coming with online trading, from misinformation about products to authenticity, parallel trading, and counterfeiting. At the same time, e-commerce is an open and transparent marketplace which can also provide a source of intelligence to manage risks across various supply chains.
The webinar will offer insights about international legal frameworks, different types of risks and explore how technologies help identify and/or allow to massively scan e-retailers and international transactions to intelligently supervise product information which triggers actions to prevent such risks.
Emerging Food Categories - Food Fraud Series Part 4 of 5 Jun 11, 2019
This is fourth in a series of five webinars on implementation of food fraud control systems and best practices. This session explores emerging food categories and markets with a focus on the latest research relating to packaging technology understanding the benefits of anti-counterfeiting techniques. Finally, we will discuss how to manage food fraud risk information for knowledge sharing and traceability with specialized tools and systems.
Caroline Francis, ResearcherMelbourne University Centre Food Value Chain
Nicola Colombo, Global HeadSGS Digicomply
David Psomiadis, Lab LeadImprint Analytics
Understanding Types of Food Fraud Risk - Food Fraud Series Part 3 of 5May 28, 2019
Sponsored by the IAFP Foundation
Organized by the IAFP Food Fraud Professional Development Group
Food fraud represents a significant potential risk for food firms that is similar to, but different than, traditional food safety or quality risks. As an intentional act, it does not follow the probabilistic aspects of food safety failures, its deterministic nature represents a different challenge. It also changes the nature of the scale of risk it represents. Given new regulations like the Preventive Control Rule, it can represent regulatory risk. If identified prior to reaching the consumer, it can be more of an operational risk. If it is not discovered until after it reaches customers or consumers, it can scale from brand/reputational risk to enterprise risk differently than a food safety or quality failure. This webinar will cover the different types of risk, including examples and provide an overview of risk management strategies to mitigate those risks.
Shaun Kennedy, Director and Adjunct Associate ProfessorThe Food System Institute and the University of Minnesota
Melanie Neumann, Executive Vice President and General CounselNeumann Risk Services, A Matrix Sciences Company
Challenges Identified with Food Fraud Implementation - Part 2 of 5: Risk Mitigation StrategiesApr 2, 2019
Organized by: Food Fraud PDG
This is the second in a series of webinars on implementation of food fraud control systems and best practices. This session will focus on three important areas of risk mitigation, beginning with an update on a global project by AOAC to advance the development of analytical methods specific to food fraud. This webinar will also present strategies for effectively managing supplier relationships to reduce the risk of fraud in your supply chain. Finally, new and emerging technologies for traceability and knowledge sharing will be discussed, based on the problem you are trying to solve.
Jennifer Lott, PresenterFood Safety and Auditing Technical Manager, SGS North America
Amanda Manolis, PresenterAssociate Director of Global Brand Marketing, Thermo Fisher Scientific
Dr. John Szpylka, PresenterScientific Affairs Director of Chemistry North America, Merieux NutriSciences
Karen Everstine, ModeratorSenior Manager of Scientific Affairs, Decernis
Challenges Identified with Food Fraud Implementation - Part 1 of 5: A Strategic Approach to Operationalize Food Fraud MitigationFeb 20, 2019
Organized by: Food Fraud PDG
Description: Part one of a five-part series on "Challenges Identified Over the Past Year with Food Fraud Implementation & Best Practices" - Part 1 of 5: A Strategic Approach to Operationalize Food Fraud Mitigation
Food fraud risks are increasing as global supply networks continue to grow in complexity. Concurrently, companies are being inundated with a plethora of publications, resources and recommendations which can be confusing in their application to supply chain management systems. This webinar will capture the current state of food fraud resources, guidance documents and technology solutions. Speakers will also address methods to evaluate the various solutions, review the steps to an effective food fraud mitigation strategy for ingredient supply chains and provide case studies.
