NCJ Number
230339
Date Published
October 2009
Length
20 pages
Annotation
This report examines food adulteration, counterfeit, and fraud using the 2007-2008 Chinese melamine contaminations in international animal and human food supply chains.
Abstract
Using the Chinese melamine case study, this report examines specific activities and characteristics of producers, consumers, markets, and product flow to facilitate the development of prevention and intervention activities of food counterfeit and fraud in international food supply chain networks. International and domestic concerns about the quality and integrity of Chinese-produced food products were heightened after a series of food product scares culminating in the 2007-2008 Chinese melamine scandals. Over a 2-year period, melamine was introduced as a counterfeit food additive in numerous products in order to boost measurable nitrogen, a surrogate protein marker. Affected products included pet food, milk products, eggs, candy, seafood, and other types of food products in the international animal food market and domestic and international human food supply chain networks. The number of companies and products implicated in these adulterations combined with reports of animal feed-related deaths in Asia 5 years earlier suggests that the addition of melamine has been a common industrial production practice in China for some time. In response, regulatory, legal, advocacy, media, and producer quality control activities in China and around the world have been introduced. The scandal provides a platform to consider food protection and defense strategies in terms of components, dimensions, and institutional and environmental influences on international food supply chain networks. Figures and references