The identification of beef crimes and the creation of a bespoke beef crimes risk assessment tool

Abstract Introduction The beef industry faces numerous diverse challenges concerning the integrity of their products due to increasingly complex global food supply chains. Specified plans which focus on managing the risks associated with food fraud are lacking but needed to prevent and mitigate threats to the beef supply. Before these plans can be developed, an understanding of threats to the beef industry and their associated risks is needed. Methods Mixed methodologies were used to identify threats and the associated risks. A review of five different databases, and reports on the Rapid Alert System for Food and Feed (RASFF) portal, were used to identify the threats in the beef supply chain. Subsequently survey stakeholders (n = 50) ranked these threats on criteria to assess their probability and their severity and determine risk. Results and conclusion This research has identified 24 types of food fraud in beef, referred to as beef crimes. To analyse and prioritize these crimes a Beef Crime Risk Assessment Tool (BCRAT) was developed to assess the risk each beef crime poses to the beef industry. Results showed that ‘illegal veterinary drugs and growth promoters' posed the greatest perceived commercial risk to the beef industry while fraud related to the ‘breed’ and ‘category’ of cattle posed the least perceived commercial risk. This research can be exploited to build food fraud prevention and mitigation plans for the beef industry.