Alchemy Systems, Austin, Texas, and the U.S. Pharmacopeial Convention (USP), Rockville, Md., announced a groundbreaking collaboration that enables food companies of all sizes to assess supply chain risk and build robust systems to minimize food fraud.

“Food companies have struggled to keep up with food adulteration risks inherent in an increasingly global ingredient supply,” says Jeff Eastman, Alchemy’s CEO. “We are delighted to combine Alchemy’s food fraud risk assessment and mitigation services with USP’s food fraud database and food fraud expertise, so that companies can better protect their supply chains, meet regulations and safeguard their brands.”

USP’s Food Fraud Database can be used to identify which ingredients have a known history of adulterations, including incident reports, inference reports, surveillance records and analytical methods. USP searches, compiles and performs quality control checks on data gathered daily from scientific literature, media publications, regulatory and judicial records and trade associations from around the globe. USP’s food fraud mitigation guidance provides a framework to assess ingredient vulnerability, the associated risk and develop food fraud mitigation plans.

“Founded in 1820, USP is a non-profit public health organization that sets standards for the identity, strength, quality and purity of medicines, food ingredients and dietary supplements manufactured, distributed and consumed worldwide,” says Bill Folkerts, vice president of strategic marketing and program operations at USP. “Over the years, USP has established itself as a leader in setting food ingredients standards and developing tools to support industry and protect the public against food fraud. Our collaboration with Alchemy will help to enable food quality and safety professionals globally to quickly assess and mitigate food fraud risks.”

Alchemy provides food safety programs used in over 25,000 facilities in 50 countries, and works with food manufacturers following the Global Food Safety Initiative (GFSI) standards, including SQF, BRC and FSC 22000 certifications.

“The Alchemy-USP collaboration will enable companies to prioritize fraud risks down to the ingredient level, so they can protect their product and brand reputation,” says Jeff Chilton, Alchemy’s vice president of professional services.