SIST EN 17972:2025

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 claims and business-to-consumer claims.
3.5
authentic
state where all food product claims match the food product characteristics
Note 1 to entry: There are claims that are subjective in nature (e.g. “tasty”, “crispy”); these are not considered in this
clause.
3.6
authenticity
quality of being authentic
3.7
authentication
process of verifying the authenticity of the food product
3.8
methods for authentication based on analysis of product characteristics
procedures and techniques for analysing food product characteristics to authenticate
claims
Note 1 to entry: Methods for the chemical, physical and sensory characterization of food products are commonly
referred to as analytical methods. Examples of analytical methods, approaches and instruments include:
—  DNA-based analyses;
—  stable isotope and trace element analyses;
—  liquid chromatography (LC);
—  gas chromatography (GC);
—  nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR) spectroscopy;
—  vibrational spectroscopy, including near-infrared (NIR) or Raman spectroscopy;
—  mass spectrometry;
—  microscopy;
—  general physical and chemical analysis;
—  sensory analysis.
Note 2 to entry: These methods have many potential applications; what they all have in common is that they can
perform measurements on the food product in question, and they can analyse some food product characteristics to
evaluate the veracity or likelihood of the claim.
3.9
methods for authentication based on analysis of recorded data
procedures for investigating the veracity, consistency or likelihood of claims, based on
recordings made in the supply chain for the food product in question
Note 1 to entry: These methods largely focus on identifying discrepancies in recorded data; that is, on identifying
sets of claims that are mutually contradictory. These methods depend on explicit claims relating to the food product
in question being available and accessible.
Note 2 to entry: The record-based methods for food product authentication can be applied on aggregate level, e.g.
for countries, regions, or industry sectors, or they can be applied in specific supply chains or compa
...