Fake News may undermine trust in food

The European Commission’s health and food safety commissioner warns that ‘fake news’ could further undermine trust in the food sector and details how European policy makers are tackling this threat.

Not only news, but also lies are spread out today with high speed by social media, internet portals and other news channels. Even professional journalists known for critical research can step into an information trap. In most cases it leads just to inaccurate reporting, creating stories that can be regarded as ridiculous, but may also cause severe damage and lost in trust of millions of citizens.

The EU needs an efficient approach in response to this trend by building up a transparent food chain and regulatory system that prevents misinformation. It is necessary to set up a comprehensive risk communication strategy and strengthen governance on scientific communication. Food industry lobbyists raise concern when more transparency is claimed. One step in finding a compromise could be a stricter “country of origin labelling”, as practised partly in France and Italy already, as national actions. For all what shall become claimed in this respect, it needs approvals at the end, if trust shall be built up.

AGROLAB and its partners are actively involved in setting up analytical tools and offering reasonable and efficient routine methods for authenticity and origin testing for agricultural raw materials, food and feed products.

If you are interested in information about what is already possible and what stays a vision at least by today, do not hesitate to contact us.

Read more:

http://europa.eu/rapid/press-release_IP-19-1030_en.htm

Author: Frank Mörsberger