Food crime: an often-ignored money laundering typology and a predicate crime

Food crimes, including adulteration, poisoning, mislabelling, and misrepresentation of information, have cost billions in the global food industry. The coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic has highlighted the weaknesses of the food supply chain. Unfortunately, such weaknesses are exploited by actors to engage in illicit activities. Consequently, this work aims to highlight the inherent susceptibility of the food sector to being exploited to launder illicit funds and as a predicate crime for generating illicit funds. This study emerges from two independent systematic literature reviews on trade-based money laundering and food crime to identify a knowledge gap highlighting the dual role of the food sector, both to launder illicit funds and as a predicate crime generating such funds. It adopts a viewpoint approach by considering the factors identified in the academic literature to outline the vulnerabilities of the food sector to illicit practices. The novelty of this study lies in focusing on the dual role of the food sector, which to date has been ignored.