What action it is taking to address food fraud, including the deliberate use of misleading labelling to suggest that an item was produced i…

Tackling food fraud has been one of the main functions of Food Standards Scotland since the Scottish Government decided to set up the organisation from 2015. The Scottish Food Crime and Incidents Unit combines the investigative and intelligence functions of FSS, and was established to prevent, detect and investigate fraud and deliberate non-compliance across the food and animal feed chain, while supporting public bodies during incidents to protect public health from risks associated with food consumption. Its remit on fraud includes food adulteration, substitution, counterfeit products and document fraud within food and feed supply chains. Examples of fraud cases include the seizure of over 250 bottles of counterfeit vodka in 2024-25 The labelling closely resembled that of genuine products, but the bottles contained potentially lethal isopropyl alcohol. A successful prosecution case in 2025, resulted in a sentence of 3 and a half years following various fraudulent claims and mislabelling of imported tea as Scottish grown.Specifically, on mis-leading labelling the Scottish Government and FSS recognise the importance of protecting consumer confidence and the reputation of genuine Scottish producers by ensuring origin claims are accurate and evidence-based. Under the Food Information to Consumers Regulation, an indication of country of origin is required where the absence of such information is likely to mislead consumers as to the true country of origin or place of provenance of that food. The place of last substantial change, such as curing pork into bacon or baking ingredients into a cake determines the origin of processed food. Simply packing a food does not constitute a substantial change therefore the origin isn’t affected. Where food businesses are not required to provide origin information, they can still provide this information on a voluntary basis providing such indications are accurate and this is done in the same way as if it were mandatory. However, where businesses falsely present products as Scottish or UK-produced when this is not the case, appropriate enforcement action will be taken to protect consumers and legitimate Scottish producers.