Online lecture by Günther Kempe on 9 April 2024, 3 pm

Moderation: Hans-Uwe von Grabowski

The lecture provides an overview of the biggest food scandals during 40 years of official food monitoring. The term "scandal" is defined and its course, background and consequences are shown. Both a look into the past of counterfeiting and deception, the introduction of food monitoring at the beginning of the 20th century and major scandals of the present are discussed, above all the counterfeiting of wine with diethylene glycol in Austria in 1985 (which incidentally led to one of the strictest wine laws in the world in Austria in 1999). In conclusion, the analysis shows that animal products are more frequently involved in scandals than plant-based foods.

Günther Kempe