International Food Fraud Conference (IFFC) in Berlin Addresses Global Food Fraud Challenges
From 5–7 November 2025, the Federal Ministry of Agriculture, Food and Regional Identity (BMLEH) together with the National Reference Centre for Authentic Food (NRZ-Authent) of the Max Rubner-Institut (MRI) hosted an international conference in Berlin focusing on current and emerging threats of food fraud. The event attracted 140 participants on site and 160 online, underscoring broad global engagement.
Federal Minister of Agriculture, Food and Regional Identity Alois Rainer opened the conference by highlighting the increasing complexity of global supply chains and the corresponding incentives for fraudulent activity. He emphasised the strong intention of the German government “to protect our consumers in the best possible way against fraud” and, referring to major past incidents, underlined the urgent need for strengthened cooperation among national, European and international authorities.
As a key component of the program, Watson partner Dr. Claudia Coral, Agrifood Chain Management Group, Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin, presented in the Panel II on Climate Change, Geopolitics and Economics, chaired by Carsten Fauhl-Hassek of the German Federal Institute for Risk Assessment (BfR). She contributed a spotlight lecture titled “Exploring food fraud within telecoupled socio-ecological systems in a changing climate.” Dr. Coral additionally co-moderated the workshops on climate change and on geopolitics and economics, together with working-group leads Selvarani Elahi (Food Authenticity Network), Timothy Wilkes (Food Authenticity Network) and Marc Lorenzen (German Federal Institute for Risk Assessment).
The session underscored that future food fraud risks are shaped by interconnected environmental, political and economic forces—highlighting the need for coordinated and forward-looking global responses.
The conference concluded with a shared commitment to further strengthening international collaboration to better protect consumers from food fraud.
https://watsonproject.eu/watson-at-international-food-fraud-conference-2025/
Link to MRI press release:
https://www.mri.bund.de/en/news/news/short-message/international-food-fraud-conference-2025/
Copyright: Martin Peiter
Copyright: MRI