EN 17972:2024

Food authenticity - Food authenticity and fraud - Concepts, terms and definitions

This document provides technical definitions of terms relating to authenticity and fraud when referring to food products. All terms and definitions are in the context of food supply chains, but most of them can also be applied when referring to feed products and the feed supply chain.

Lebensmittelauthentizität - Lebensmittelauthentizität und -betrug - Konzepte und Begriffe

Dieses Dokument enthält technische Definitionen von Benennungen in Bezug auf Authentizität und Betrug im Zusammenhang mit Lebensmittelprodukten. Alle Begriffe beziehen sich auf die Lebensmittellieferkette, aber die meisten von ihnen können auch im Zusammenhang mit Futtermitteln und der Futtermittellieferkette angewendet werden.

Authenticité des aliments - Authenticité et fraude alimentaires - Concepts, termes et définitions

Le présent document donne la définition technique de termes relatifs à l’authenticité et à la fraude dans le contexte des produits alimentaires. Bien que l’ensemble des termes et des définitions s’inscrive dans le contexte des chaînes d’approvisionnement des produits destinés à l’alimentation humaine, la plupart d’entre eux peuvent également s’appliquer au contexte des produits d’alimentation animale et de la chaîne d’approvisionnement des produits destinés à l’alimentation animale.

Pristnost živil - Pristnost živil in goljufije - Koncepti, izrazi in definicije

Ta dokument vsebuje tehnične definicije izrazov v zvezi s pristnostjo in goljufijo pri sklicevanju na živilske proizvode. Vsi izrazi in definicije spadajo v kontekst verig preskrbe s hrano, vendar jih je večino mogoče uporabiti tudi pri sklicevanju na živalsko krmo in verigo preskrbe s krmo.

General Information

• Status: Published
• Publication Date: 05-Nov-2024
• ICS: 01.040.67 - Food technology (Vocabularies)
• ICS: 65.120 - Animal feeding stuffs
• ICS: 67.020 - Processes in the food industry
• ICS: 67.050 - General methods of tests and analysis for food products
• Technical Committee: CEN/TC 460 - Food Authenticity
• Drafting Committee: CEN/TC 460/WG 1 - Concepts, terms and definitions
• Current Stage: 6060 - Definitive text made available (DAV) - Publishing
• Start Date: 06-Nov-2024
• Due Date: 29-Dec-2024
• Completion Date: 06-Nov-2024
• Ref Project: SIST EN 17972:2025 - Food authenticity - Food authenticity and fraud - Concepts, terms, and definitions

Overview

EN 17972:2024 - published by CEN - defines concepts, terms and technical definitions for food authenticity and food fraud in the context of food supply chains (also largely applicable to feed). Approved 21 July 2024, this European Standard provides an internally consistent vocabulary to describe product characteristics, claims, authenticity status, and types of fraud. It does not set prescriptive test methods or compliance limits; rather it standardizes terminology to support communication, risk assessment and harmonised practice across industry, laboratories and regulators.

Key topics

• Core definitions: process, product, characteristic, claim, authentic, authenticity, authentication, non‑authentic, misdescription.
• Hierarchy of concepts: the standard explains how product characteristics relate to claims and how those relationships define authenticity.
• Authentication approaches:
  • Analysis of product characteristics - analytical techniques used to verify claims (examples listed in the standard include DNA analysis, stable isotope and trace element analysis, LC, GC, NMR, NIR/Raman spectroscopy, mass spectrometry, microscopy, general physico‑chemical and sensory analysis).
  • Analysis of recorded data - record‑based methods that check the veracity and consistency of supply‑chain records (e.g., material flow / mass‑balance accounting, input–output analysis).
• Types of misdescription: accidental vs. deliberate; definition and scope of food fraud (deliberate misdescription), including implicit claim violations, record tampering and product tampering.
• Scope and application: terms related to origin, production method, composition, processing, certification, and associated claims are covered.

Practical applications and users

EN 17972:2024 is intended for anyone who needs consistent terminology around food authenticity and fraud:

• Food industry quality and compliance teams - to design authenticity risk assessments and supplier controls.
• Testing laboratories and method developers - to map analytical outputs to defined authenticity concepts.
• Regulators and enforcement agencies - to harmonise investigation reports and legal definitions.
• Certification bodies and auditors - to define what constitutes misdescription or fraud in audits.
• Standard writers, researchers and policy makers - to base guidance, standards and research on a shared vocabulary.
• Supply‑chain managers and traceability solution providers - to align records and analytical checks with defined claims.

Related standards

• Aligns with terms from EN ISO 22000:2018 (process/product definitions) and references ISO/IEC terminology resources (ISO OBP, IEC Electropedia).
• EN 17972:2024 contains no normative references; it establishes definitions to underpin future standards, methodologies and regulations addressing food authenticity and fraud.

Standards Content (Sample)

SLOVENSKI STANDARD
01-januar-2025
Pristnost živil - Pristnost živil in goljufije - Koncepti, izrazi in definicije
Food authenticity - Food authenticity and fraud - Concepts, terms, and definitions
Lebensmittelauthentizität - Lebensmittelauthentizität und -betrug - Konzepte und Begriffe
Authenticité des aliments - Authenticité des aliments et fraude - Concepts, termes et
définitions
Ta slovenski standard je istoveten z: EN 17972:2024
ICS:
01.040.67 Živilska tehnologija (Slovarji) Food technology
(Vocabularies)
67.020 Procesi v živilski industriji Processes in the food
industry
2003-01.Slovenski inštitut za standardizacijo. Razmnoževanje celote ali delov tega standarda ni dovoljeno.

EN 17972
EUROPEAN STANDARD
NORME EUROPÉENNE
November 2024
EUROPÄISCHE NORM
ICS 01.040.67; 67.020
English Version
Food authenticity - Food authenticity and fraud - Concepts,
terms and definitions
Authenticité des aliments - Authenticité et fraude Lebensmittelauthentizität - Lebensmittelauthentizität
alimentaires - Concepts, termes et définitions und -betrug - Konzepte und Begriffe
This European Standard was approved by CEN on 21 July 2024.

CEN members are bound to comply with the CEN/CENELEC Internal Regulations which stipulate the conditions for giving this
European Standard the status of a national standard without any alteration. Up-to-date lists and bibliographical references
concerning such national standards may be obtained on application to the CEN-CENELEC Management Centre or to any CEN
member.
This European Standard exists in three official versions (English, French, German). A version in any other language made by
translation under the responsibility of a CEN member into its own language and notified to the CEN-CENELEC Management
Centre has the same status as the official versions.

CEN members are the national standards bodies of Austria, Belgium, Bulgaria, Croatia, Cyprus, Czech Republic, Denmark, Estonia,
Finland, France, Germany, Greece, Hungary, Iceland, Ireland, Italy, Latvia, Lithuania, Luxembourg, Malta, Netherlands, Norway,
Poland, Portugal, Republic of North Macedonia, Romania, Serbia, Slovakia, Slovenia, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland, Türkiye and
United Kingdom.
EUROPEAN COMMITTEE FOR STANDARDIZATION
COMITÉ EUROPÉEN DE NORMALISATION

EUROPÄISCHES KOMITEE FÜR NORMUNG

CEN-CENELEC Management Centre: Rue de la Science 23, B-1040 Brussels
© 2024 CEN All rights of exploitation in any form and by any means reserved Ref. No. EN 17972:2024 E
worldwide for CEN national Members.

Contents Page
European foreword . 3
Introduction . 4
1 Scope . 5
2 Normative references . 5
3 Terms and definitions . 5
Bibliography . 12
European foreword
This document (EN 17972:2024) has been prepared by Technical Committee CEN/TC 460 “Food
authenticity”, the secretariat of which is held by DIN.
This European Standard shall be given the status of a national standard, either by publication of an
identical text or by endorsement, at the latest by May 2025, and conflicting national standards shall be
withdrawn at the latest by May 2025.
Attention is drawn to the possibility that some of the elements of this document may be the subject of
patent rights. CEN shall not be held responsible for identifying any or all such patent rights.
Any feedback and questions on this document should be directed to the users’ national standards body.
A complete listing of these bodies can be found on the CEN website.
According to the CEN-CENELEC Internal Regulations, the national standards organisations of the
following countries are bound to implement this European Standard: Austria, Belgium, Bulgaria, Croatia,
Cyprus, Czech Republic, Denmark, Estonia, Finland, France, Germany, Greece, Hungary, Iceland, Ireland,
Italy, Latvia, Lithuania, Luxembourg, Malta, Netherlands, Norway, Poland, Portugal, Republic of North
Macedonia, Romania, Serbia, Slovakia, Slovenia, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland, Türkiye and the United
Kingdom.
Introduction
The general dictionary definition of “authenticity” is “the quality of being authentic”, and the relevant
dictionary definitions of “authentic” include “not false or copied; genuine; real” and “having an origin
supported by unquestionable evidence; authenticated; verified”. This document defines various terms
and concepts in relation to authenticity and fraud related to feed and food products, including what
various terms mean and what they entail. The aim of this document is to provide an internally consistent
set of definitions that to a large degree is also in line with other definitions and with common word usage.
The terms and concepts defined here are largely based on the relationship between food product
characteristics and food product claims. Food products have characteristics of various types; these
characteristics are the real and actual properties that the food product in question has. Examples can
include various characteristics related to the origin of the food product, the processes undergone in
making it, the composition of the food product, the presence of additives, the eco-label status, etc. Some
of these characteristics, such as composition, are physically inherent in the food product, whereas some
other characteristics, such as eco-label status or exact origin, are not. Food products also come with some
explicit claims attached, at least if they are sold commercially, when a certain amount of product
information is mandatory. Claims are statements made about the food product; either explicitly (“this is
extra virgin olive oil, and the label says so”) or implicitly (“this food is safe”). Authenticity when it comes
to food products is when there is a match between the actual characteristic of the food product and the
claim made about it. Lack of authenticity can be deliberate, as when someone intentionally makes a false
claim about a food product; then we refer to it as food fraud, and there are various types of food fraud
identified in this document. Lack of authenticity can also be accidental, for instance when an error in the
production process or in the documentation / labelling process has led to a mismatch between the
product characteristic and the claim. Note that the term “claim” in this document refers to any explicit or
implicit statement which implies that a food product has a certain characteristic, whether the provision
of this information is legally required or not.
This document intends to provide a common ground upon which future work regarding the authenticity
and fraud of food products can be based.
1 Scope
This document provides technical definitions of terms relating to authenticity and fraud when referring
to food products. All terms and definitions are in the context of food supply chains, but most of them can
also be applied when referring to feed products and the feed supply chain.
2 Normative references
There are no normative references in this document.
3 Terms and definitions
For the purposes of this document, the following terms and definitions apply.
ISO and IEC maintain terminology databases for use in standardization at the following addresses:
— ISO Online browsing platform: available at https://www.iso.org/obp/
— IEC Electropedia: available at https://www.electropedia.org/
The terms and concepts defined in this section have a hierarchical relationship to each other which can
be illustrated as follows in Figure 1:

Figure 1 — Hierarchy of terms and concepts
In Figure 1, an arrow from a term to a term means that the first term is used when defining the second
term. The terms on the same level in Figure 1 are not necessarily mutually exclusive. This hierarchy is
reflected in the clauses below by showing the domain to which each term or concept belongs in angle
brackets (< >) before its definition.
3.1
process
set of interrelated or interacting activities which transforms inputs to outputs
[SOURCE: EN ISO 22000:2018, definition 3.36]
3.2
product
output that is a result of a process
Note 1 to entry: Products can be raw materials, intermediate/semi processed products, or finished products.
Note 2 to entry: In this document, product refers to food, feed, raw materials, or ingredients, where relevant also
including their packaging.
[SOURCE: EN ISO 22000:2018, definition 3.37, modified – Note 1 to entry has been replaced]
3.3
characteristic
distinguishing feature of the product
Note 1 to entry: A product characteristic can be qualitative or quantitative.
Note 2 to entry: A product characteristic is sometimes referred to as a product attribute or a product property.
Note 3 to entry: There are various classes of product characteristics, such as the following:
—  product name, type, definition, category (e.g. coffee, beer, extra virgin olive oil);
—  physical (e.g. size, weight, shape);
—  physico-chemical (e.g. electrical conductivity, pH);
—  composition, ingredients, or constituents (e.g. moisture, protein, fat, vitamin content, species, specific breed,
variety);
—  sensory (e.g. related to smell, touch or taste);
—  functional (e.g. nutritional quality of a food product);
—  related to origin (e.g. geographic origin, identity of primary processor);
—  related to production method (e.g. organic, free range);
—  related to processing (e.g. quick-frozen, defrosted, irradiated, mildly processed, cooked at low temperature,
location at a given time);
—  related to other defined practices (including practices e.g. relating to halal or kosher production or animal
welfare), certification schemes or regulations (e.g. produced according to some specification such as geographical
indication).
Note 4 to entry: A product characteristic can be inherent in the product itself, or it can relate to the conditions
under which the product was produced, or the environment in which it was produced. The list in Note 3 includes
direct (inherent) and indirect (associated) product characteristics.
3.4
claim
statement where a product is said or implied to have a certain characteristic
Note 1 to entry: The claim can be explicit, e.g. on the label or in the accompanying documentation.
Note 2 to entry: The claim can be implicit, for example that the food product is produced according to applicable
rules and regulations.
Note 3 to entry: If the product is not safe, it will primarily be dealt with as a food safety issue, not as a food
authenticity issue.
Note 4 to entry: Some jurisdictions use a narrower definition of the term “claim” where the term is applied only to
nutritional claims or health claims. This document has a wider and more general definition of “claim”; both
mandatory information required by law (including the product description) and additional voluntary information
provided by the producer are considered claims, and they are normally explicit claims.
Note 5 to entry: This includes business-to-business clai
...

SLOVENSKI STANDARD
01-januar-2025
Pristnost živil - Pristnost živil in goljufije - Načini, izrazi in definicije
Food authenticity - Food authenticity and fraud - Concepts, terms, and definitions
Lebensmittelauthentizität - Lebensmittelauthentizität und -betrug - Konzepte und Begriffe
Authenticité des aliments - Authenticité des aliments et fraude - Concepts, termes et
définitions
Ta slovenski standard je istoveten z: EN 17972:2024
ICS:
01.040.67 Živilska tehnologija (Slovarji) Food technology
(Vocabularies)
67.020 Procesi v živilski industriji Processes in the food
industry
2003-01.Slovenski inštitut za standardizacijo. Razmnoževanje celote ali delov tega standarda ni dovoljeno.

EN 17972
EUROPEAN STANDARD
NORME EUROPÉENNE
November 2024
EUROPÄISCHE NORM
ICS 01.040.67; 67.020
English Version
Food authenticity - Food authenticity and fraud - Concepts,
terms and definitions
Authenticité des aliments - Authenticité et fraude Lebensmittelauthentizität - Lebensmittelauthentizität
alimentaires - Concepts, termes et définitions und -betrug - Konzepte und Begriffe
This European Standard was approved by CEN on 21 July 2024.

CEN members are bound to comply with the CEN/CENELEC Internal Regulations which stipulate the conditions for giving this
European Standard the status of a national standard without any alteration. Up-to-date lists and bibliographical references
concerning such national standards may be obtained on application to the CEN-CENELEC Management Centre or to any CEN
member.
This European Standard exists in three official versions (English, French, German). A version in any other language made by
translation under the responsibility of a CEN member into its own language and notified to the CEN-CENELEC Management
Centre has the same status as the official versions.

CEN members are the national standards bodies of Austria, Belgium, Bulgaria, Croatia, Cyprus, Czech Republic, Denmark, Estonia,
Finland, France, Germany, Greece, Hungary, Iceland, Ireland, Italy, Latvia, Lithuania, Luxembourg, Malta, Netherlands, Norway,
Poland, Portugal, Republic of North Macedonia, Romania, Serbia, Slovakia, Slovenia, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland, Türkiye and
United Kingdom.
EUROPEAN COMMITTEE FOR STANDARDIZATION
COMITÉ EUROPÉEN DE NORMALISATION

EUROPÄISCHES KOMITEE FÜR NORMUNG

CEN-CENELEC Management Centre: Rue de la Science 23, B-1040 Brussels
© 2024 CEN All rights of exploitation in any form and by any means reserved Ref. No. EN 17972:2024 E
worldwide for CEN national Members.

Contents Page
European foreword . 3
Introduction . 4
1 Scope . 5
2 Normative references . 5
3 Terms and definitions . 5
Bibliography . 12
European foreword
This document (EN 17972:2024) has been prepared by Technical Committee CEN/TC 460 “Food
authenticity”, the secretariat of which is held by DIN.
This European Standard shall be given the status of a national standard, either by publication of an
identical text or by endorsement, at the latest by May 2025, and conflicting national standards shall be
withdrawn at the latest by May 2025.
Attention is drawn to the possibility that some of the elements of this document may be the subject of
patent rights. CEN shall not be held responsible for identifying any or all such patent rights.
Any feedback and questions on this document should be directed to the users’ national standards body.
A complete listing of these bodies can be found on the CEN website.
According to the CEN-CENELEC Internal Regulations, the national standards organisations of the
following countries are bound to implement this European Standard: Austria, Belgium, Bulgaria, Croatia,
Cyprus, Czech Republic, Denmark, Estonia, Finland, France, Germany, Greece, Hungary, Iceland, Ireland,
Italy, Latvia, Lithuania, Luxembourg, Malta, Netherlands, Norway, Poland, Portugal, Republic of North
Macedonia, Romania, Serbia, Slovakia, Slovenia, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland, Türkiye and the United
Kingdom.
Introduction
The general dictionary definition of “authenticity” is “the quality of being authentic”, and the relevant
dictionary definitions of “authentic” include “not false or copied; genuine; real” and “having an origin
supported by unquestionable evidence; authenticated; verified”. This document defines various terms
and concepts in relation to authenticity and fraud related to feed and food products, including what
various terms mean and what they entail. The aim of this document is to provide an internally consistent
set of definitions that to a large degree is also in line with other definitions and with common word usage.
The terms and concepts defined here are largely based on the relationship between food product
characteristics and food product claims. Food products have characteristics of various types; these
characteristics are the real and actual properties that the food product in question has. Examples can
include various characteristics related to the origin of the food product, the processes undergone in
making it, the composition of the food product, the presence of additives, the eco-label status, etc. Some
of these characteristics, such as composition, are physically inherent in the food product, whereas some
other characteristics, such as eco-label status or exact origin, are not. Food products also come with some
explicit claims attached, at least if they are sold commercially, when a certain amount of product
information is mandatory. Claims are statements made about the food product; either explicitly (“this is
extra virgin olive oil, and the label says so”) or implicitly (“this food is safe”). Authenticity when it comes
to food products is when there is a match between the actual characteristic of the food product and the
claim made about it. Lack of authenticity can be deliberate, as when someone intentionally makes a false
claim about a food product; then we refer to it as food fraud, and there are various types of food fraud
identified in this document. Lack of authenticity can also be accidental, for instance when an error in the
production process or in the documentation / labelling process has led to a mismatch between the
product characteristic and the claim. Note that the term “claim” in this document refers to any explicit or
implicit statement which implies that a food product has a certain characteristic, whether the provision
of this information is legally required or not.
This document intends to provide a common ground upon which future work regarding the authenticity
and fraud of food products can be based.
1 Scope
This document provides technical definitions of terms relating to authenticity and fraud when referring
to food products. All terms and definitions are in the context of food supply chains, but most of them can
also be applied when referring to feed products and the feed supply chain.
2 Normative references
There are no normative references in this document.
3 Terms and definitions
For the purposes of this document, the following terms and definitions apply.
ISO and IEC maintain terminology databases for use in standardization at the following addresses:
— ISO Online browsing platform: available at https://www.iso.org/obp/
— IEC Electropedia: available at https://www.electropedia.org/
The terms and concepts defined in this section have a hierarchical relationship to each other which can
be illustrated as follows in Figure 1:

Figure 1 — Hierarchy of terms and concepts
In Figure 1, an arrow from a term to a term means that the first term is used when defining the second
term. The terms on the same level in Figure 1 are not necessarily mutually exclusive. This hierarchy is
reflected in the clauses below by showing the domain to which each term or concept belongs in angle
brackets (< >) before its definition.
3.1
process
set of interrelated or interacting activities which transforms inputs to outputs
[SOURCE: EN ISO 22000:2018, definition 3.36]
3.2
product
output that is a result of a process
Note 1 to entry: Products can be raw materials, intermediate/semi processed products, or finished products.
Note 2 to entry: In this document, product refers to food, feed, raw materials, or ingredients, where relevant also
including their packaging.
[SOURCE: EN ISO 22000:2018, definition 3.37, modified – Note 1 to entry has been replaced]
3.3
characteristic
distinguishing feature of the product
Note 1 to entry: A product characteristic can be qualitative or quantitative.
Note 2 to entry: A product characteristic is sometimes referred to as a product attribute or a product property.
Note 3 to entry: There are various classes of product characteristics, such as the following:
—  product name, type, definition, category (e.g. coffee, beer, extra virgin olive oil);
—  physical (e.g. size, weight, shape);
—  physico-chemical (e.g. electrical conductivity, pH);
—  composition, ingredients, or constituents (e.g. moisture, protein, fat, vitamin content, species, specific breed,
variety);
—  sensory (e.g. related to smell, touch or taste);
—  functional (e.g. nutritional quality of a food product);
—  related to origin (e.g. geographic origin, identity of primary processor);
—  related to production method (e.g. organic, free range);
—  related to processing (e.g. quick-frozen, defrosted, irradiated, mildly processed, cooked at low temperature,
location at a given time);
—  related to other defined practices (including practices e.g. relating to halal or kosher production or animal
welfare), certification schemes or regulations (e.g. produced according to some specification such as geographical
indication).
Note 4 to entry: A product characteristic can be inherent in the product itself, or it can relate to the conditions
under which the product was produced, or the environment in which it was produced. The list in Note 3 includes
direct (inherent) and indirect (associated) product characteristics.
3.4
claim
statement where a product is said or implied to have a certain characteristic
Note 1 to entry: The claim can be explicit, e.g. on the label or in the accompanying documentation.
Note 2 to entry: The claim can be implicit, for example that the food product is produced according to applicable
rules and regulations.
Note 3 to entry: If the product is not safe, it will primarily be dealt with as a food safety issue, not as a food
authenticity issue.
Note 4 to entry: Some jurisdictions use a narrower definition of the term “claim” where the term is applied only to
nutritional claims or health claims. This document has a wider and more general definition of “claim”; both
mandatory information required by law (including the product description) and additional voluntary information
provided by the producer are considered claims, and they are normally explicit claims.
Note 5 to entry: This includes business-to-business claim
...