The FSA’s National Food Crime Unit supports businesses to protect themselves from fraud, over the busy festive period

Over the Christmas period, we are encouraging businesses, particularly smaller ones, to use our Food Fraud Resilience tool, a quick and free to use self-assessment tool, which helps businesses to understand where they may need further support and protection from food fraud.

Following an initial assessment through the tool, NFCU colleagues are able to work with businesses to identify and provide tips and advice based on individual needs to ensure the highest level of protection against food fraud.

Advice and tips for businesses include support such as:

• Ensuring suppliers to your business are legitimate and tools to recognise this
• Training employees to recognise food fraud and understand how to report it
• Being able to recognise orders from fake or cloned companies
• Probing questions to ask and to not rely on good will or previous working history
• Recognising when something is too good to be true

Steve Smith, Head of Outreach and Prevention at the NFCU said:

“Food crime costs UK businesses £11.6bn each year and has a huge impact on businesses, some of whom may never recover from the damaging financial loss. With Christmas upon us, businesses are busy concentrating on trading which is often when they are at their most vulnerable.

Businesses have faced up to a myriad of extraordinary challenges in the last two years and continue to do so, and, now more than ever, we are encouraging businesses to use the quick and effective tool so we can start a conversation with them about their individual business needs.

Our aim is to make sure no one gets caught out by food crime, meaning businesses can focus on what really matters to them and their customers at such a busy time.”

If you have further questions for the NFCU Prevention Team, or would like support in building your business's fraud resilience, provide your email address at the end of the tool or contact us directly at NFCU.Prevention@food.gov.uk