Scotch Whiskies and Forensic Examinations of Manufacturing-Derived Features for Their Authentication.

With the global whisky market reaching $65.6 billion in 2024 and projected to reach $89.48 billion by the end of 2029, the incentives for fraud in relation to (and adulteration of) this alcoholic beverage are self-evident. Law enforcement agencies worldwide have taken actions against crimes of this nature, with forensic scientists playing crucial roles (mainly through expert testimonies on sample authenticities) during legal proceedings. Important issues associated with Scotch whisky authentication include: (a) understanding the typical manufacturing process; (b) acquisition of reference samples; and (c) effective utilization of instrumentations to characterize features derived from the manufacturing process and strategic approaches for the interpretation of analytical findings. Following a brief review of the definition/classification, manufacturing, and adulteration/counterfeiting of Scotch whiskies, this review focuses on the characterization of manufacturing-derived features and interpretation of analytical findings as grouped into: (a) quantitative analysis of single compounds; (b) qualitative analysis and intensity ratio of multiple compounds; (c) chemometric analysis of selected multi-compounds; and (d) quantitative analysis of selected elements. Finally, a flowchart for conducting the authentication process, from various significantly different perspectives, is proposed.

Unlocking food safety: a comprehensive review of South Africa's food control and safety landscape from an environmental health perspective.

Food fraud (often called fake food in South Africa) the deliberate misrepresentation or adulteration of food products for financial gain, is a growing problem in South Africa (SA) with severe public health and financial consequences for consumers and businesses. The recent public outcry against food fraud practices especially in communities that have lost loved ones due to the consumption of allegedly adulterated foodstuffs, highlights the grave danger that food fraud poses to consumers and the potential for significant reputational damage to food manufacturers. Despite the risks, food fraud often goes undetected, as perpetrators are becoming increasingly sophisticated. The precise magnitude of food fraud remains obscure, as incidents that do not cause consumer illnesses are frequently unreported and, as a result, are not investigated. Food fraud costs the global economy billion annually. This cost is borne by consumers, businesses, and the government. Food fraud can occur at any stage of the food supply chain, from production to processing to retailing or distribution. This is due in part to the limitations of current analytical methods, which are not always able to detect food fraud. This review of food fraud in SA looks at several factors that may be contributing to epidemic of food fraud, including inadequate penalties, inadequate government commitment, a complex labelling regulation, emerging threats such as e-commerce, and shortage of inspectors and laboratories. The review recommends establishing a single food control/safety authority, developing more food safety laboratories, and adopting innovative technologies to detect and prevent food fraud. SA faces a serious food fraud crises unless decisive action is taken.

WHO Warns of Counterfeit Ozempic in the Global Supply Chain-Here's What to Know.

This Medical News article discusses reports of falsified semaglutide being found around the world.

How should regulatory schemes be optimized to enhance deterrence against medical insurance fraud by enrollees? Evidence from a discrete choice experiment in China.

Medical insurance fraud (MIF) poses a substantial global financial challenge, necessitating effective regulatory strategies, especially in China, where such measures are in a critical developmental phase. This study investigates the effectiveness of various regulatory components in deterring MIF among enrollees and explores preference heterogeneity among individuals with different characteristics, utilizing a discrete choice experiment survey. Grounded in deterrence theory, our conceptual framework incorporates five attributes: intensity of economic penalties, restrictions on medical insurance benefits, deterioration of social reputation, and certainty and celerity of penalties. Employing a D-efficiency design, 24 choice sets were generated and blocked into three versions. A multistage stratified sampling method was adopted to collect data from the basic medical insurance enrollees in Shanghai. The survey was conducted from September to October 2022. The sample representativeness was further improved via the entropy balancing approach. Data from the final sample of 1034 respondents were analyzed using mixed logit models (MIXLs), incorporating interactions with individual characteristics to assess preference heterogeneity. Results reveal that escalating economic penalties, suspending insurance benefits, listing individuals as unfaithful parties, ensuring penalty certainty, and expediting enforcement significantly enhance the deterrent effect. We observed preference heterogeneity across different demographics, including age, gender, education, health status, and employment status. The study underscores the pivotal role of economic penalties in deterring MIF, while also acknowledging the significance of non-economic measures such as enforcement efficiency and social sanctions. These findings offer valuable insights for policymakers to tailor and strengthen regulatory schemes against MIF, contributing to the advancement of more effective and precise healthcare policies.

The challenges associated with the prevention of smuggling and counterfeiting health goods in Iran.

BACKGROUND: Smuggling health goods given the importance and critical nature of health services should be undeniably addressed and controlled by all countries. This issue is especially more widespread in developing countries with more damaging consequences. This paper therefore aims to identify and analyze the challenges of preventing smuggling of health goods in Iran. METHOD: Within this qualitative study, we conducted face-to-face, semi-structured interviews with 30 purposefully recruited key informants and stakeholders in the detection, prevention, and combating of health goods smuggling. Each interview was analyzed thematically, using an inductive approach to generate codes, then categorized and presented in the form of main themes and sub-themes. Maxqda 11 assisted in coding, analysis, and data management. RESULTS: Three main themes emerged representing the challenges of prevention of smuggling in Iran in the areas of anti-smuggling policy development, including categories of inefficient policy and plan, and failure to reach agenda; policy implementation; categorized into actors, resources and instruments, and implementation guarantee; and finally monitoring and evaluation; including, procedures and practices, and the role of surveyors. CONCLUSION: Prevention of smuggling health goods proves to be a highly complex, challenging, and multi-faceted practice. Therefore, strengthening policy-making, regulatory frameworks, and facilitation functions about smuggling, counterfeiting, and corruption should be promoted in parallel.

The economic impacts of social activism and corporate social responsibility on food fraud.

The study examines the relationship between the corporate social responsibility (CSR) investments of a food firm, an activist's incentive to target the firm to uncover and deter fraudulent behavior, and the firm's incentive to commit food fraud. Specifically, we develop a game theoretic model to analyze the strategic interaction between a food firm that decides whether to provide a credence food attribute and whether to misrepresent the quality of its product, and an activist who decides whether to monitor the firm and launch a campaign to uncover and remove false/misleading quality claims. We further examine the effect of CSR and the activist's presence on the level of quality the firm provides. We derive the conditions under which an activist will find it optimal to monitor the firm to uncover fraudulent quality claims and the firm will find it optimal to misrepresent its product quality. Analytical results show that the greater the firm's CSR investments, the less likely it is that the activist will find it optimal to monitor the firm, and the more likely it is that the firm will find it optimal to misrepresent its product quality. Results also show that the firm is more likely to misrepresent its product quality when its effectiveness in contesting the activist's campaign is relatively high, and more likely to actually provide a high-quality product when the cost of the credence attribute is relatively low.

The role of corruption in global food systems: a systematic scoping review.

BACKGROUND: Corruption exists at all levels of our global society and is a potential threat to food security, food safety, equity, and social justice. However, there is a knowledge gap in the role and impact of corruption within the context of the global food system. We aimed to systematically review empirical literature focused on corruption in the global food system to examine how it is characterized, the actors involved, its potential impacts, and the solutions that have been proposed to address corruption in the food system. METHODS: We used a systematic scoping review methodology. Terms combining corruption and the food system were searched in Scopus, PubMed, Web of Science, PsycInfo and Econlit, in October 2021. Two screeners applied a priori selection criteria to screen the articles at the title and abstract and full-text levels. Data was extracted into a charting form and thematically synthesized to describe the types of corruption in the food system, the actors involved, how corruption impacts the food system, and potential solutions. Sankey diagrams and narrative summaries were developed to summarize the included studies and findings. RESULTS: From the 238 included records, five main types of corruption were identified in the global food system: bureaucratic corruption, fraud, bribery, organized crime, and corporate political activity. These different types of corruption spanned across various food system areas, from policy and governance structures to food environments, and involved a wide range of actors. More powerful actors like those in public and private sectors tended to instigate corruption in the food system, while community members and primary producers tended to be impacted by it. The impacts of corruption were mostly negative and corruption was found to undermine food system governance and regulatory structures; threaten health, safety, and food security; and lead or contribute to environmental degradation, economic loss, erosion of trust, social inequities, and decreased agricultural productivity. While solution-oriented literature was limited, the essential role of strong governance,  use of technology and predictive modelling methods to improve detection of corruption, and organizational approaches to problem solving were identified. CONCLUSION: Our review findings provide researchers and policymakers with a comprehensive overview of corruption in the global food system, providing insights to inform a more holistic approach to addressing the issue. Addressing corruption in the food system is an essential element of supporting the transition to a more healthy, equitable and sustainable global food system.

Combating Fraudulent Participation in Urban American Indian and Alaska Native Virtual Health Research: Protocol for Increasing Data Integrity in Online Research (PRIOR).

BACKGROUND: While the advantages of using the internet and social media for research recruitment are well documented, the evolving online environment also enhances motivations for misrepresentation to receive incentives or to "troll" research studies. Such fraudulent assaults can compromise data integrity, with substantial losses in project time; money; and especially for vulnerable populations, research trust. With the rapid advent of new technology and ever-evolving social media platforms, it has become easier for misrepresentation to occur within online data collection. This perpetuation can occur by bots or individuals with malintent, but careful planning can help aid in filtering out fraudulent data. OBJECTIVE: Using an example with urban American Indian and Alaska Native young women, this paper aims to describe PRIOR (Protocol for Increasing Data Integrity in Online Research), which is a 2-step integration protocol for combating fraudulent participation in online survey research. METHODS: From February 2019 to August 2020, we recruited participants for formative research preparatory to an online randomized control trial of a preconceptual health program. First, we described our initial protocol for preventing fraudulent participation, which proved to be unsuccessful. Then, we described modifications we made in May 2020 to improve the protocol performance and the creation of PRIOR. Changes included transferring data collection platforms, collecting embedded geospatial variables, enabling timing features within the screening survey, creating URL links for each method or platform of data collection, and manually confirming potentially eligible participants' identifying information. RESULTS: Before the implementation of PRIOR, the project experienced substantial fraudulent attempts at study enrollment, with less than 1% (n=6) of 1300 screened participants being identified as truly eligible. With the modified protocol, of the 461 individuals who completed a screening survey, 381 did not meet the eligibility criteria assessed on the survey. Of the 80 that did, 25 (31%) were identified as ineligible via PRIOR. A total of 55 (69%) were identified as eligible and verified in the protocol and were enrolled in the formative study. CONCLUSIONS: Fraudulent surveys compromise study integrity, validity of the data, and trust among participant populations. They also deplete scarce research resources including respondent compensation and personnel time. Our approach of PRIOR to prevent online misrepresentation in data was successful. This paper reviews key elements regarding fraudulent data participation in online research and demonstrates why enhanced protocols to prevent fraudulent data collection are crucial for building trust with vulnerable populations. TRIAL REGISTRATION: ClinicalTrials.gov NCT04376346; https://www.clinicaltrials.gov/study/NCT04376346. INTERNATIONAL REGISTERED REPORT IDENTIFIER (IRRID): DERR1-10.2196/52281.

Unsolicited scam invitations from predatory publications and fraudulent conferences: Radiology-in-training experience.

PURPOSE: Radiology faculty across various specialties have been reported to receive an average of 20.7 invitations to submit manuscripts to bogus journals and 4.1 invitations to speak at unsuitable events over a two-week span. Radiology trainees also receive a fair number of unsolicited invitations from unknown senders to submit manuscripts and speak at meetings. Trainees can be more vulnerable to predatory invitations due to potential naivety. We aimed to determine the prevalence of these spam invitations received by radiology trainees. MATERIAL AND METHODS: The designed survey for evaluating the experience of radiology trainees regarding phishing scams of predatory publications and conferences was sent to radiology residency and neuroradiology fellowship program leadership to redistribute amongst their trainees, and was advertised on social media platforms. The survey was first sent out on September 28, 2023, and was closed two weeks later October 12, 2023. Spearman's correlation, univariable and multivariable linear regression analyses were performed. RESULTS: Our study included 151 respondents who completed the survey. Of the survey respondents, 53 % reported receiving unsolicited emails from predatory publications (mean = 6.76 ± 7.29), and 32 % reported receiving emails from fraudulent conferences (mean = 5.61 ± 5.77). Significant positive correlation was observed between number of unsolicited email invitations with number of PubMed indexed publications, number as corresponding author, number in open access journals and number of abstract presentations. CONCLUSIONS: Trainees in radiology receive many unsolicited invitations to publish papers as well as to present at meetings that are not accredited. This could lead to wasted time and financial resources for unsuspecting trainees.

Death anxiety and older adults' vulnerability to fraud: the mediating role of materialism.

Death anxiety arousal, provoked by anticipating self-nonexistence, may be used as a fraud tactic by scammers on older adults; however, little is known about how it affects older adults' decision making when confronted with a scam and the mechanisms underlying these effects. This study used a questionnaire survey and experimental design to examine them. In Study 1, 307 older adults in China completed questionnaires. The results showed a positive link between death anxiety and vulnerability to fraud, partially mediated by materialism. In Study 2, 82 older adults in China were randomly assigned to the mortality salience group and control group to examine whether death anxiety arousal can increase older adults' vulnerability to fraud and the mediating role of materialism. The results indicated that death anxiety and materialism increase the risk of consumer products and services fraud; therefore, targeting these risk factors might protect older adults from fraud.

Collaborative artificial intelligence system for investigation of healthcare claims compliance.

Healthcare fraud, waste and abuse are costly problems that have huge impact on society. Traditional approaches to identify non-compliant claims rely on auditing strategies requiring trained professionals, or on machine learning methods requiring labelled data and possibly lacking interpretability. We present Clais, a collaborative artificial intelligence system for claims analysis. Clais automatically extracts human-interpretable rules from healthcare policy documents (0.72 F1-score), and it enables professionals to edit and validate the extracted rules through an intuitive user interface. Clais executes the rules on claim records to identify non-compliance: on this task Clais significantly outperforms two baseline machine learning models, and its median F1-score is 1.0 (IQR = 0.83 to 1.0) when executing the extracted rules, and 1.0 (IQR = 1.0 to 1.0) when executing the same rules after human curation. Professionals confirm through a user study the usefulness of Clais in making their workflow simpler and more effective.

Food Fraud Conceptualization: An Exploratory Study with Portuguese Consumers.

Food fraud refers to deceptive practices conducted for economic gain, and incidents of such fraud are often reported in the media and scientific literature. However, little is known about how European consumers perceive food fraud. To address this gap, a study explored Portuguese consumers' knowledge and perceptions of food fraud using qualitative methods such as free word association and semi-structured interviews. For this research, 340 participants were recruited, providing 911 valid words, classified into categories, major categories, and dimensions. Differences between consumers' previous exposure to food fraud and sociodemographic characteristics were explored. Additionally, other thirty-six participants were selected and interviewed, following a semi-structured guide. Interviews were transcribed, coded, and analyzed using a thematic analysis procedure. The results suggest that Portuguese consumers view food fraud as a morally reprehensible deception and are aware of its causes and impacts. However, not all consumers know the different forms of food fraud or the types of products vulnerable to fraud. Among the most repeated words were "deception", "expiration date", and "falsification". Despite this food fraud awareness, most consumers believed they were not exposed to food fraud and stated that they do not conduct daily practices to reduce exposure to it. Following the chi-square and Mann-Whitney tests, significant differences (p ≤ 0.05) were identified between participants exposed and not exposed to food fraud. The study also found that consumers with higher education and self-reported exposure to food fraud had a better understanding of the issue. This study provides insights for quantitative research on consumer perceptions and beliefs about food fraud to explore further vulnerable food categories and types of food fraud in real-world scenarios.

Rapid and sensitive approaches for detecting food fraud: A review on prospects and challenges.

Precise and reliable analytical techniques are required to guarantee food quality in light of the expanding concerns regarding food safety and quality. Because traditional procedures are expensive and time-consuming, quick food control techniques are required to ensure product quality. Various analytical techniques are used to identify and detect food fraud, including spectroscopy, chromatography, DNA barcoding, and inotrope ratio mass spectrometry (IRMS). Due to its quick findings, simplicity of use, high throughput, affordability, and non-destructive evaluations of numerous food matrices, NI spectroscopy and hyperspectral imaging are financially preferred in the food business. The applicability of this technology has increased with the development of chemometric techniques and near-infrared spectroscopy-based instruments. The current research also discusses the use of several multivariate analytical techniques in identifying food fraud, such as principal component analysis, partial least squares, cluster analysis, multivariate curve resolutions, and artificial intelligence.

Legislating for Good Governance in the Pharmaceutical Sector through UN Convention Against Corruption (UNCAC) Compliance.

Pharmaceutical sector corruption undermines patient access to medicines by diverting public funds for private gain and exacerbating health inequities. This paper presents an analysis of UN Convention Against Corruption (UNCAC) compliance in seven countries and examines how full UNCAC adoption may reduce corruption risks within four key pharmaceutical decision-making points: product approval, formulary selection, procurement, and dispensing. Countries were selected based on their participation in the Medicines Transparency Alliance and the WHO Good Governance for Medicines Programme. Each country's domestic anti-corruption laws and policies were catalogued and analysed to evaluate their implementation of select UNCAC Articles relevant to the pharmaceutical sector. Countries displayed high compliance with UNCAC provisions on procurement and the recognition of most public sector corruption offences. However, several countries do not penalise private sector bribery or provide statutory protection to whistleblowers or witnesses in corruption proceedings, suggesting that private sector pharmaceutical dispensing may be a decision-making point particularly vulnerable to corruption. Fully implementing the UNCAC is a meaningful first step that countries can take reduce pharmaceutical sector corruption. However, without broader commitment to cultures of transparency and institutional integrity, corruption legislation alone is likely insufficient to ensure long-term, sustainable pharmaceutical sector good governance.