By George Nott2021-01-28T09:35:00+00:00 The categories worst hit by food fraud were spirits, wine and honey The Covid pandemic is causing a rise in global food fraud, a report by the government-backed Food Authenticity Network has found. Analysis by the network found a 37% rise in food fraud cases taken from both official sources and media reports, when comparing the first half of 2020 to the same period in 2019. The worst hit categories were spirits, wine and honey. Adulteration cases increased by 30% and counterfeit incidents by 47%. The situation could be even worse, given the current reduced regulatory oversight globally, the report notes. “It is likely that the true impact of Covid-19 on the incidence of global food fraud will not be known until full resumption of regulatory surveillance worldwide,” the report states.