The figures may be a little past their sell-by date, but in 2010 the Grocery Manufacturers’ Association put the cost of food fraud, including counterfeiting and economically motivated adulteration, at over $10 billion — a significant sum in what was then a $2.1-trillion industry.
To protect customers and to back up claims about the quality of their products, supermarket chains need to be able to trace the provenance of ingredients back through the supply chain all the way to the farm.