Table 3 The different categories of fraud as notified to EFSA with the potential application of each type of fraud in the edible insect industry.

Mislabelling/ Documents

Fraudulently placing false or misleading claims or information on product packaging, often to appear as a premium product and thereby increase profit margins. Mislabelling fraud may encompass false nutritional, geographical, expiration date or quality claims.

False mislabelling of country of origin, production methods or nutritional information such as protein or fats content, etc. to deceive customers into thinking this is a premium product, thereby increasing the products price and profit margins

Documents

The process of tampering, adapting or imitating documents relating to the identification, origin or production of food products such as animal passports and identification.

Documents relating to insect species, production methods, or feed substrate could be tampered with.

Addition

The process of intentionally adding undeclared substances or elements into food/feed products which have not been approved and are not declared on packaging. The substances added are often of an inferior quality for the purpose of ‘bulking’ the product for financial gain.

Undeclared substances which boost nitrogen content such as melamine could be added to insect products. The illegal addition of melamine or other nitrogenous compounds would artificially inflate the apparent insect protein content upon analysis. A major food safety risk would result.

Dilution/ Substitution

The process of intentionally diluting or substituting a product of high value within a food product with another nutrient, ingredient or food, often of a lower value for financial gain. Dilution often refers to liquids, whereas substitution refers to food products.

Insect protein powders could be substituted with lower quality substances such as sawdust to increase profit margins. Other forms of lower cost protein (soya for example) could be used as adulterants and thus trigger food allergy issues.

Unapproved treatment or process

The process of intentionally carrying out unapproved treatments during food production, and this can refer to the use of pesticides, chemicals, veterinary medicines and growth promoters during production, or the incorrect handling, packaging, transport and storage or products.

The use of illegal or undeclared chemicals during insect production such as pesticides or veterinary medicines which have not been declared on the packaging.

Concealment

Fraudulently hiding the quality of ingredients or products such as contaminated, putrid meat and fish products treated with unauthorised food improvement agents or additives.

Deceiving consumer through incorrect and non-transparent quality of the product and nutritional information such as the protein, fats, vitamin or mineral content.

IPR infringement

Intellectual Property Rights (IPR) infringement refers to the fraudulent replication of any aspect of genuine packaging such as copying the brand name, logo, packaging or processing method for economic gain.

As an emerging industry in Western countries, with few companies in the supply chain, it could be the case that unauthorised products are fraudulently labelled with reputable supplier’s names and logos i.e., counterfeiting of bona fide products