A Weight of Evidence approach is typically employed for food authenticity investigations in situations where screening tests do not provide a definitive answer, or where there is no applicable legal limit for what is being evaluated. In these types of situations, gathering and assessing several different forms of evidence may aid in coming to a conclusion on the authenticity of a sample/product.
This e-seminar, “Weight of Evidence approach in food authenticity – what is it and when to use it?” is based on a “Toolkit to Support Weight of Evidence Approaches for Food Authenticity Investigations,” that has been published by Defra, and provides guidance and best practice on how to approach a weight of evidence assessment, in order to verify the authenticity of food and drink samples where no single confirmatory test result is currently available. It has been designed to support anyone who is required to make an assessment on the authenticity of a food or drink sample based on a combination of information from several independent sources but may also be of interest to anyone in the food and drink industry who undertakes supply chain audits and due diligence checks as part of any authenticity investigation.
The production of this e-seminar was co-funded by the UK Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, the Food Standards Agency, Food Standards Scotland and the Department for Science Innovation and Technology via the Government Chemist, under the Joint Knowledge Transfer Framework for Food Standards and Food Safety Analysis.