The majority of the nations around the world have become melting pots of civilization, leading to an increasing interconnectedness of the global food system. However, with the long-winded food supply chains there exists information asymmetry between the consumers and the food they consume, making them more vulnerable to the outbreaks of diseases caused by tainted food. As an assurance that food is acceptable for human and animal consumption, food safety averts any exposure to food frauds and foodborne illness outbreaks therefrom. For this reason, the law endows the food regulators and the food business operators (FBOs) with the “trace, alert, and recall” tools at all levels of a food supply chain to regulate the safety of both the domestic as well as the imported articles of food. As a risk assessment and management tool, traceability furthers the mandate of law enforcement in facilitating and targeting the recall or removal/withdrawal of articles of foods.
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Food systems have become global, linked through trade and sophisticated financial and insurance markets. The globalisation of agri-food markets has led to an increased movement of food products, information, and people between various nations. Consumers gain from this development due to the widespread availability of a variety of food products from other parts of the world in their local markets. Indeed, the emergence of transnational agri-food corporations, the development of food science and transportation expertise, and the institution of the World Trade Organisation (WTO) and its efforts at liberalisation have made possible the international sourcing of food ingredients (Lin C., 2020). The regulatory framework instituted by the WTO facilitates free and fair international food trade. As a result, the global food supply chain has grown extensively and fragmented, creating ample room for the existence and spread of foodborne risks/ diseases, economically motivated adulteration, and management inefficiencies.
Along the complex globalised agri-food supply chain, a slipup or regulatory failure at one point can spill over to the others, entailing serious public health and socio- economic consequences. In other words, with agri-food supply chains becoming more globalised, fragmented, and reliant on an increasing number of participants (Behnkea & Janssen, 2020), the identification, tracking and ensuring the safety of the articles of food has become extremely difficult. In this context, traceability and food recall procedures have become effective tools to ensure not only the safety aspect in the global agri-food supply chains but also transparency, regulatory compliance, improved understanding of the products’ life cycle and conscientious consumption.
Food frauds, scandals, and foodborne illnesses from mismanagement and adulteration are well documented. The United States’ (US) Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) estimate forty-eight million people in the United States of America (USA) contracting foodborne illnesses every year (CDC, 2011). The World Health Organisation (WHO) estimates that one in ten people suffers from food poisoning worldwide, with 4, 20,000 fatalities, annually (WHO, 2017). The enormous scale, pace and complexity of global food supply chains now create plenty opportunities for the conception and rapid distribution of adulterated or sub-standard or unsafe food (Ercsey-Ravasz et al., 2012). The costs of food fraud and adulteration are difficult to estimate but could exceed approx. USD 40 billion as per an estimate (PWC, 2016). The socio-economic impacts of supply chain failures are significant, for instance, Moyer et al. (2017) reflected that the cost of the horse meat scandal in the European Union (see O'mahony, 2013) was “incalculable”. Globally, the United Nations (UN) Sustainable Development Goals (Goal 2- End hunger, achieve food security) recognise the need to reduce the incidence of foodborne disease(s) by observing: “achieving food security and ensuring healthy lives, will depend in part on successful reduction of the burden of foodborne diseases”.
Recently, in India, in Swami Achyutanand Tirth & Others Vs. Union of India & Others, 2016, the Hon’ble Supreme Court of India (SC) issued directions to the concerned State Governments and Union of India to take effective measures for combating the sale of adulterated and synthetic milk. It was alleged that milk was being adulterated with hazardous substance like urea, detergent, refined oil, caustic soda, etc. which adversely affects the consumers’ health. In Raj Kumar Vs. the State of Uttar Pradesh, 2019, the SC observed that non-compliance of milk, as a primary food, with a prescribed standard would render it to be treated as an adulterated article even if it is not rendered injurious to health. Even a marginal deviation from the prescribed standard cannot be ignored.