How much is Exposed the Romanian Market to Food Fraud?

The increasing demand for food due to the increase in world population, higher incomes and higher living standards, together with the appetite for illicit gains, as old as mankind on producers or retailers amid limited natural resources represent factors that now lead to an increased incidence of food fraud. The paper proposes a presentation of food frauds, referring to the Romanian food market, approached as part of the European market. The research uses information from the literature, European databases on food frauds, national or community official press releases on the suspected situations of food falsification. The results of the research have highlighted a small number of notifications from national authorities regarding the presence of falsified food products on the domestic market, although Romania is incriminated as origin / transit country for a series of falsified food found on the American market. Information about food fraud, methods for prevention or information of consumers are difficult to access or are absent from the websites of organizations with duties in the field. Improving the European fraud monitoring and control system after the horse meat scandal has led to the identification of multiple ways of falsifying food and feed. The most often defrauded products are the animal products, which generally have a higher value compared to products of vegetable origin.