Protect Your Brands From Expiry Date Fraud

By Karen Constable

Food fraud takes many forms, but it primarily falls into two categories. Either the food itself is adulterated, or the information that accompanies the food is inaccurate.

Expiry date fraud is the latter type.

The motivation for expiry date fraud is most often to increase the time that food can be sold rather than discarded. As with all food fraud, the motivation is economic. In expiry date fraud, there is a financial benefit to keeping and selling food past its expiry date.

Expiry date fraud occurs at various levels of the industry and affects food both in large-scale, well-organized operations and in smaller affairs.

Frozen packaged food, including seafood and meat is commonly affected, but other foods can be at risk too. Here are some examples of expiry date fraud incidents that have been reported by the international media: