Invited Talk: Harnessing Technology, Fighting Food Fraud and Transforming Food Manufacturing

There’s a name for it: food fraud. A number of high profile scandals in recent years, such as rice made with plastics, or cheap teas masquerading as expensive brews, have made people cautious about what they eat. To protect consumers from fraud and health issues caused by consuming these products, governments are relying on blockchain solution, QR codes on packages or sending samples to labs for testing – but our scientific approach measures the food itself to prove what it claims to be, even when the packaging is removed. Recent technological advances in data analytics, machine learning and spectrometry have made what was once previously impossible, possible. Science is now able to identify food molecular structure cheaply and accurately - and that has had impressive impact on food manufacturing transparency and efficiency . The speaker will share more on how technology should be harnessed to improve the supply chain efficiency of the food industry, and more importantly strengthen the trust amongst consumers as we move into the new era of increasing food fraud and unscrupulous adulteration.