Academic literature on the topic 'Food adulteration and inspection'

Ginkgo biloba is a popular medicinal plant widely used in numerous herbal products, including food supplements. Due to its popularity and growing economic value, G. biloba leaf extract has become the target of economically motivated adulterations. There are many reports about the poor quality of ginkgo products and their adulteration, mainly by adding flavonols, flavonol glycosides, or extracts from other plants. In this work, we developed an approach using two-trace two-dimensional correlation spectroscopy (2T2D COS) in UV-Vis range combined with multilinear principal component analysis (MPCA) to detect potential adulteration of twenty G. biloba food supplements. UV-Vis spectral data are obtained for 80% methanol and aqueous extracts in the range of 245–410 nm. Three series of two-dimensional correlation spectra were interpreted by visual inspection and using MPCA. The proposed relatively quick and straightforward approach successfully differentiated supplements adulterated with rutin or those lacking ginkgo leaf extract. Supporting information about adulteration was obtained from the difference between the DPPH radical scavenging capacity of both extracts and from chromatographic (HPLC-DAD) fingerprints of methanolic samples.

Spices are dried part of a plant other than leaves commonly used for colouring or flavouring of food. Despite the fact, spices are also used as preservatives and has its medicinal importance too. Spices are grown all over the world. In production of spices India plays a major role. India is the world’s largest producer, consumer and exporter of spices. 75 out of 109 varieties of spices are produced in India. In middle ages, spices were considered as precious as gold because of its medicinal and preservative properties. Nowadays, spice adulteration has become a serious problem which is increasing the impurity of products thus making it imperfect to consume. Adulteration is regularly done because of consumer’s behaviour as they want to buy stuffs at lowest possible price. Ground spices usually adulterated with artificial colours, starch, chalk powder, etc. These additives increase their weight and also enhances appearance. Adulteration is not only degenerating the quality of food but also affecting the health of individuals. This study summarizes -Detection of food adulterant in red chilli powder and turmeric powder through various Physical and Chemical methods. Both branded and non- branded samples of above-mentioned spices were collected to study the level of adulteration and quality difference between them. Detection was carried out through chemical analysis and visual inspection. This study is done to aware public about food adulteration.

In violation of EU legislation, fraudulent activities in agri-food chains seek to make economic profits at the expense of consumers. Food frauds (FFs) often constitute a public health risk as well as a risk to animal and plant health, animal welfare and the environment. To analyze FFs in Italy during 1997–2020 with the aim of gaining observational insights into the effectiveness of the legislation in force and consequently of inspection activities, FFs were determined from official food inspections carried out by the Central Inspectorate of Quality Protection and Fraud Repression of Agri-food Products in 1997–2020. Inspected sectors were wine, oils and fats, milk and dairy products, fruit and vegetables, meat, eggs, honey, feeds and supplements, and seeds. Data show that the inspection activities have significantly improved in terms of sampling and fraud detection. However, a higher incidence of fraud involving the meat sector was observed. The obtained results demonstrate that there has not been a clear change of direction after the so-called “hygiene package” (food hygiene rules in the EU) came into force. Thus, more effective measures are needed to manage risk as well as new analytical solutions to increase the deterrence against meat adulteration and the rapid detection of fraud.

In violation of EU legislation, fraudulent activities in agri-food chains seek to make economic profits at the expense of consumers. Food frauds (FFs) often constitute a public health risk as well as a risk to animal and plant health, animal welfare and the environment. To analyze FFs in Italy during 1997–2020 with the aim of gaining observational insights into the effectiveness of the legislation in force and consequently of inspection activities, FFs were determined from official food inspections carried out by the Central Inspectorate of Quality Protection and Fraud Repression of Agri-food Products in 1997–2020. Inspected sectors were wine, oils and fats, milk and dairy products, fruit and vegetables, meat, eggs, honey, feeds and supplements, and seeds. Data show that the inspection activities have significantly improved in terms of sampling and fraud detection. However, a higher incidence of fraud involving the meat sector was observed. The obtained results demonstrate that there has not been a clear change of direction after the so-called “hygiene package” (food hygiene rules in the EU) came into force. Thus, more effective measures are needed to manage risk as well as new analytical solutions to increase the deterrence against meat adulteration and the rapid detection of fraud.

The aim of the research was to present legal regulations concerning adulteration on the market of agricultural and food products, and the effects of actions taken by IJHARS in this regard. The study has covered the Polish and EU legal regulations concerning the issues of irregularities and of the liability of entrepreneurs on the foodstuffs market. This goal has been achieved by analysing secondary data, i.e. legal acts and the available results of the inspections conducted in 2009–2017 by the official food control authorities. The administrative decisions issued by IJHARS pursuant to Article 29 of the Act on Merchantable Quality of Agricultural and Food Products, concerning the adulteration of agricultural and food products, which are published on the Inspection’s website, have been analysed in particular detail. The results of the control activities indicate that further control activities are justified, in particular with regard to food labelling.

Food is a special good. It is special because of its place in the world economy and a set of products setting the latest trends in the economy. Nowadays, more and more attention is paid not only to food supply and availability but also to its quality and adulteration. It results, above all, from the more and more common phenomenon of food adulteration on a global scale. The phenomenon being a consequence of, first of all, liberalization of commodity exchange and development of food trade (Kowalczyk 2009), generally, therefore, a consequence of progressing globalization (Kowalczyk 2014). For these reasons, the problem of food safety and quality becomes an essential topic of consideration both at the national, regional (e.g. European Union - EU) and global (Codex Alimentarius) level. The aim of this article was to assess the level of quality and food safety in Poland during the last several years. Formation of quality and food safety requires precise control, which is possible thanks to the creation of quality and food safety management systems. These systems concern the control of food at all stages of its production, i.e. from the producer to the consumer. The analysis showed that it is difficult to assess unequivocally the level of food quality and safety in Poland. The study was based on the analysis of literature on the analyzed subject, including numerous, selected reports and post-inspection reports of various organizations studying the quality and safety of food in Poland. The level of food safety on the Polish market is good and comparable to other EU countries. However, it is not free from irregularities that may periodically increase. Minimizing these threats is possible, among others, by consistent controls, promotion of participation in voluntary quality systems and high requirements in terms of quality standards.

ABSTRACT Meat adulteration has recently become an issue of increasing public concern. In addition to posing a health risk to consumers with metabolic disorders or allergies, meat adulteration has triggered many economic and religious problems. Chicken meat is a common adulterant in nonchicken products because of its low cost and ready availability. A loop-mediated isothermal amplification assay coupled with a lateral flow dipstick was developed to identify chicken in nonchicken products. We optimized the amplification time and temperature to obtain the best result. This assay is performed at a constant temperature in a water bath and can be completed in 1 h. No precision instruments or equipment are needed. With a one-step reaction and easy operation, the testing cost is low. This method is highly sensitive and specific and is a valuable method for identifying chicken in nonchicken products to meets the requirements of on-site inspection and detection. HIGHLIGHTS

Tapioca starch adulterated with dolomite is sold in markets, but this adulteration cannot be identified by normal visual inspection. Near infrared (NIR) hyperspectral imaging has been successfully used as a non-destructive method of identifying various characteristics of food, therefore it was tested to identify dolomite adulteration. Adulterated tapioca starch samples were prepared by adding dolomite in the range of 0.5-100% (wt/wt). Samples (N=400) of pure tapioca starch (0) and adulterated tapioca starch (1) were divided into calibration set (N=300) and a prediction set (N=100). All samples were scanned using NIR hyperspectral imaging (935-1720 nm) and spectra were pre-processed using Savitzky-Golay first derivative differentiation pretreatment in order to obtain the optimal conditions for establishing a classification model. Partial least squares-discriminant analysis was carried out to evaluate the accuracy of classification tapioca starch adulterated with dolomite. The results showed the total accuracy of prediction for classification was 100%. Therefore, NIR hyperspectral imaging was demonstrated to have a potential for use in detecting adulteration of tapioca starch with dolomite.

For certain types of foods, food vendors often label low-quality foods that are harmless to human health as foods of excellent quality and sell these falsely labeled products to consumers. Because this type of food poses no harm to human health, when public health units discover their act of false labeling or food adulteration, vendors are only penalized with a fine rather than having them assume criminal liability. Upon discovering vendors act of falsely labeling food, public health units typically punish the involved parties according to the extent of false labeling. Such static protective measure is ineffective. Instead, the extent of punishment should be based not only on the extent of false labeling, but also on the frequency of food sampling as well as the number of samples obtained for food inspections. Only through this dynamic approach can food adulteration or false labeling be effectively prevented. Adopting the standpoint of the public sector in food safety management, this study developed a mathematical model that facilitates discussion on the aforementioned problems. Furthermore, we discussed how the supply-demand environmental factors of the food market are influenced by the administrative means that the public health units have used to prevent food false labeling.

In recent years, consumer interest in meat authenticity has increased. Fraudulent claims are most likely to be regarding meat origin, meat substitution, meat processing treatment, and non-meat ingredient additions. This study focuses on the substitution of meat species in processed kebab-like food sales in Poland. The growing popularity of kebab-like foods and the limited number of official inspections of this type of food make this topic interesting. In this study, the results reveal that 60% of the foods analyzed contain an undeclared ingredient or the substitution of an expensive ingredient with a cheaper option.

Thesis (Ph. D.)--Electrical and Computer Engineering, Georgia Institute of Technology, 2005.
Dr. Jennifer E. Michaels, Committee Chair ; Dr. Bonnie Heck Ferri, Committee Member ; Dr. George J. Vachtsevanos, Committee Member ; Dr. Magnus Egerstedt, Committee Member ; Dr. Farrokh, Ayazi, Committee Member ; Dr. Sheldon M. Jeter, Committee Member. Vita. Includes bibliographical references.

Thesis (Ph. D.)--Electrical and Computer Engineering, Georgia Institute of Technology, 2004.
Vachtsevanos, George J., Committee Chair; Dorrity, J. Lewis, Committee Member; Egerstedt, Magnus, Committee Member; Heck-Ferri, Bonnie S., Committee Co-Chair; Williams, Douglas B., Committee Member; Yezzi, Anthony J., Committee Member. Includes bibliography.

Agro-terrorism has become a major concern since the September 11, 2001, terrorist attacks due to characteristics that create unique problems for managing the threat of an agro-terrorist attack. The costs of trucking delays alone were in the tens of millions of dollars. Over the last few years, the government has spent billions of dollars on biological surveillance and record keeping in preventing potential attacks. Several public and private initiatives are currently in use. Examples include 1) the bio-terrorism regulation of 2004 on maintenance of records; 2) establishment of food protection centers for research and teaching excellence; and 3) investments in emerging technology, such as radio frequency monitoring (RFEM) technology, with the potential to track shipments and provide real-time data that can be used to prevent agro-terrorism risks along food supply chains. This thesis addresses the costs and risk premiums associated with alternative tracking strategies, where and when along the milk supply chain these strategies will reduce the most risks, and what policy implications are associated with the most costeffective tracking strategy. To accomplish these objectives, stochastic optimization is used to determine the costs and risk premiums of alternative tracking strategies. Next, the realoptions method along with a portfolio of options, also referred to as the "tomato garden" framework, is used to determine where and when alternative intervention strategies should be implemented to reduce the most risks. Finally, policy implications are derived on the cost-risk tradeoffs, probability of attacks, and containment efforts if there is an attack by using game theory to determine the incentives needed to motivate participants in the milk supply chain to invest in security measures.

Agro-terrorism has become a major concern since the September 11, 2001, terrorist attacks due to characteristics that create unique problems for managing the threat of an agro-terrorist attack. The costs of trucking delays alone were in the tens of millions of dollars. Over the last few years, the government has spent billions of dollars on biological surveillance and record keeping in preventing potential attacks. Several public and private initiatives are currently in use. Examples include 1) the bio-terrorism regulation of 2004 on maintenance of records; 2) establishment of food protection centers for research and teaching excellence; and 3) investments in emerging technology, such as radio frequency monitoring (RFEM) technology, with the potential to track shipments and provide real-time data that can be used to prevent agro-terrorism risks along food supply chains. This thesis addresses the costs and risk premiums associated with alternative tracking strategies, where and when along the milk supply chain these strategies will reduce the most risks, and what policy implications are associated with the most costeffective tracking strategy. To accomplish these objectives, stochastic optimization is used to determine the costs and risk premiums of alternative tracking strategies. Next, the realoptions method along with a portfolio of options, also referred to as the "tomato garden" framework, is used to determine where and when alternative intervention strategies should be implemented to reduce the most risks. Finally, policy implications are derived on the cost-risk tradeoffs, probability of attacks, and containment efforts if there is an attack by using game theory to determine the incentives needed to motivate participants in the milk supply chain to invest in security measures.

Agroterrorism is the deliberate introduction of a plant or animal disease with thegoal of causing fear, economic instability, illness, or death. After the 2002 terroristattacks on the World Trade Center, the security of the food supply is of increasingconcern to the United States. A major incidence of agroterrorism or food tampering would have far reaching impacts on the economy and public health. The first objective of this project was to determine knowledge and concern of agroterrorism in meat processing facilities in Kentucky, and to determine knowledge and concern of food tampering and food defense in food service establishments in Warren County, Kentucky. The second objective was to determine security strategies that were being implemented by these facilities. Two separate surveys, one for meat processors and the other for food service establishments, were designed to meet these objectives. An observational study was conducted for meat processing facilities. It was found that these facilities were generally unconcerned with agroterrorism, although a reasonable amount of security implementations were in place at these facilities. A statistical comparison between restaurants and non-restaurant food service establishments, such as schools, hospitals, and hotels, was performed. Both types of food service establishments expressed little concern about a food tampering event. Non- restaurant food service establishments were slightly more concerned than restaurants about both food tampering and food defense.

This bulletin aims to provide general information on European elder (Sambucus nigra, syn. S. nigra subsp. nigra) berry (often spelled “elderberry”) and berries from other Sambucus species in commerce, such as American elder (S. canadensis, syn. S. nigra subsp. canadensis), blue elder (S. cerulea, syn. S. nigra subsp. cerulea), and dwarf elder (S. ebulus), and berry extracts as ingredients in dietary supplements and food products and summarize the available information on adulteration, mislabeling, counterfeiting, and fraud of elder berry extract and its products (e.g. capsules, syrups, et al.). It also provides information on trade and market dynamics, laboratory methods for detecting adulteration, and economic and safety implications for the consumer, health professional, and industry. It may be used as guidance for quality control personnel, members of the international phytomedicine and botanical supplement industries, and the extended natural products community in general.

Lavender oil obtained from the flowers of English lavender (Lavandula angustifolia Mill., Lamiaceae) is widely used in the production of fragrances, cosmetics, food, beverage products, and pharmaceuticals. The essential oil (EO) is used orally, by inhalation as a sleep aid, and can be applied topically for skin treatment. Adulteration of lavender oil is considered to be widespread due to high product demand and lower prices for chemically similar EOs and compounded fragrances. Some of the known adulterants are EOs from spike lavender (Lavandula latifolia Medik.) or lavandin (Lavandula × intermedia Emeric ex Loisel, syn. Lavandula angustifolia Mill. × Lavandula latifolia Medik.), vegetable oils, glycols, and naturally occurring volatile compounds from lower-cost sources (linalool, linalyl acetate, lavandulyl acetate). This Laboratory Guidance Document (LGD) presents a review of various analytical methods used to detect adulteration of EO of English lavender with lavandin, spike lavender, linalool and linalyl acetate-rich EOs, terpenes, and other chemicals. This document can be used in conjunction with the “Adulteration of English Lavender (Lavandula angustifolia) EO Botanical Adulterants Prevention Bulletin” published by the ABC-AHP-NCNPR Botanical Adulterants Prevention Program in 2020.

Grape Seed Extract (GSE) has received acceptance almost globally as an ingredient for human consumption. It is one of the more widely used botanical extracts, due to increasing scientific findings supporting health benefits. However, it remains a specialty item relative to global commodities. In the United States, GSE has ranked among the top 20 best-selling dietary supplements in the Food, Drug and Mass Market channel. The motivation behind purposeful adulteration in commercial products is financial gain (also known as economically motivated adulteration) and to increase the concentration in proanthocyanidins (PACs) as primary marker compounds as a means to contribute to the misperception of quality. Adulterants include other PAC-rich materials, which are available at lower cost. Thus, a bulk distributor of GSE or another manufacturer along the value chain can take advantage of the chemical similarity between GSE and peanut skin extract since the spectrophotometric assays typically used in industry are not specific enough to discriminate between grape seed PACs and PACs from other plant extracts. Due to reliance on non-specific proximate assays across the value-chain, adulteration can go undetected downstream in the commodity chain, such as those involved in distribution, packaging, wholesale, and retail sales. This laboratory guidance document presents a review of the various analytical technologies and methods used to differentiate between grape seed extracts and potential adulterants.

Poultry is the most widely consumed meat in the UK, and its effective inspection within processing facilities is essential to ensure regulatory compliance. Poultry inspection is performed manually and is extremely challenging due to the short time available to inspect each bird and the sustained level of concentration required. The project focused specifically on post-mortem inspection of poultry, adopting a benefits realisation approach to determine the requirements for any new technologies and ensure that business benefits are delivered to all stakeholders within the poultry chain. This interdisciplinary project included expertise in a variety of complimentary inspection technologies; optical (visual, Near-Infrared, Infrared, Hyperspectral), X-ray and Ultrasonic and IT-enabled benefits realisation management with the Hartree Centre (STFC), a food business operator (referred to throughout as Food Co.) and CSB as project partners.

The aim of the Kitchen Life 2 project is to identify the key behaviours relating to food safety that occur in domestic and business kitchens, as well as the factors that may reduce the likelihood to enact recommended food safety and hygiene behaviours. The outcomes will inform risk assessment and development of hypotheses for behavioural interventions. The goal of this literature review was to ensure that the research design and fieldwork techniques identify existing key behaviours, actors, triggers and barriers in domestic and business kitchens to develop successful behavioural interventions and risk assessment models. Additionally, we have included the impacts of Covid-19 pandemic and national lockdowns on food safety practices in domestic and business kitchens. This addition is important because FSA policy response to the pandemic should address the needs of both consumers and food businesses due to reduced ability to deliver inspection and enforcement activities, business diversification (for example, shifting to online delivery and takeaway), increasing food insecurity, and change in food consumption behaviours (for example, cooking from scratch) (FSA, 2020).

he Food Standards Agency (FSA) is responsible for food safety across England, Wales, and Northern Ireland. As part of its work on the Achieving Business Compliance (ABC) programme, the FSA wanted to understand more about how other regulators have approached regulatory change programmes, with a view to introducing their own programme. The FSA wanted to learn from what had happened in the past, explore the current landscape of regulatory change, and identify what good practice looks like. The ABC team also wanted to understand the challenges and barriers faced by other regulators and how these were dealt with, so they could learn more about what works. The overarching aim of the research was to identify transferable lessons learnt, and good practice in regulatory change. In particular, this focused on exploring: the planning and implementation of change stakeholder engagement and relationships outcomes and lessons learned The scope of the research was not restricted to the food landscape and included a broad range of regulators with a focus on, but not restricted to, those who operate within an inspection, safety and standards environment.

As Americans become increasingly health conscious, they have increased their consumptionof boneless white and skinless poultry meat. To the poultry industry, accurate detection of bonefragments and other hazards in de-boned poultry meat is important to ensure food quality andsafety for consumers. X-ray imaging is widely used for internal material inspection. However,traditional x-ray technology has limited success with high false-detection errors mainly becauseof its inability to consistently recognize bone fragments in meat of uneven thickness. Today’srapid grow-out practices yield chicken bones that are less calcified. Bone fragments under x-rayshave low contrast from meat. In addition, the x-ray energy reaching the image detector varieswith the uneven meat thickness. Differences in x-ray absorption due to the unevenness inevitablyproduce false patterns in x-ray images and make it hard to distinguish between hazardousinclusions and normal meat patterns even by human visual inspection from the images.Consequently, the false patterns become camouflage under x-ray absorptions of variant meatthickness in physics, which remains a major limitation to detecting hazardous materials byprocessing x-ray images alone.Under the support of BARD, USDA, and US Poultry industries, we have aimed todeveloping a new technology that uses combined x-ray and laser imaging to detect bonefragments in de-boned poultry. The technique employs the synergism of sensors of differentprinciples and has overcome the deficiency of x-rays in physics of letting x-rays work alone inbone fragment detection. X-rays in conjunction of laser-based imaging was used to eliminatefalse patterns and provide higher sensitivity and accuracy to detect hazardous objects in the meatfor poultry processing lines.Through intensive research, we have met all the objectives we proposed during the researchperiod. Comprehensive experiments have proved the concept and demonstrated that the methodhas been capable of detecting frequent hard-to-detect bone fragments including fan bones andfractured rib and pulley bone pieces (but not cartilage yet) regardless of their locations anduneven meat thickness without being affected by skin, fat, and blood clots or blood vines.

Banco de la República is celebrating its 100th anniversary in 2023. This is a very significant anniversary and one that provides an opportunity to highlight the contribution the Bank has made to the country’s development. Its track record as guarantor of monetary stability has established it as the one independent state institution that generates the greatest confidence among Colombians due to its transparency, management capabilities, and effective compliance with the central banking and cultural responsibilities entrusted to it by the Constitution and the Law. On a date as important as this, the Board of Directors of Banco de la República (BDBR) pays tribute to the generations of governors and officers whose commitment and dedication have contributed to the growth of this institution.1 Banco de la República’s mandate was confirmed in the National Constitutional Assembly of 1991 where the citizens had the opportunity to elect the seventy people who would have the task of drafting a new constitution. The leaders of the three political movements with the most votes were elected as chairs to the Assembly, and this tripartite presidency reflected the plurality and the need for consensus among the different political groups to move the reform forward. Among the issues considered, the National Constitutional Assembly gave special importance to monetary stability. That is why they decided to include central banking and to provide Banco de la República with the necessary autonomy to use the instruments for which they are responsible without interference from other authorities. The constituent members understood that ensuring price stability is a state duty and that the entity responsible for this task must be enshrined in the Constitution and have the technical capability and institutional autonomy necessary to adopt the decisions they deem appropriate to achieve this fundamental objective in coordination with the general economic policy. In particular, Article 373 established that “the State, through Banco de la República, shall ensure the maintenance of the purchasing power of the currency,” a provision that coincided with the central banking system adopted by countries that have been successful in controlling inflation. In 1999, in Ruling 481, the Constitutional Court stated that “the duty to maintain the purchasing power of the currency applies to not only the monetary, credit, and exchange authority, i.e., the Board of Banco de la República, but also those who have responsibilities in the formulation and implementation of the general economic policy of the country” and that “the basic constitutional purpose of Banco de la República is the protection of a sound currency. However, this authority must take the other economic objectives of state intervention such as full employment into consideration in their decisions since these functions must be coordinated with the general economic policy.” The reforms to Banco de la República agreed upon in the Constitutional Assembly of 1991 and in Act 31/1992 can be summarized in the following aspects: i) the Bank was assigned a specific mandate: to maintain the purchasing power of the currency in coordination with the general economic policy; ii) the BDBR was designatedas the monetary, foreign exchange, and credit authority; iii) the Bank and its Board of Directors were granted a significant degree of independence from the government; iv) the Bank was prohibited from granting credit to the private sector except in the case of the financial sector; v) established that in order to grant credit to the government, the unanimous vote of its Board of Directors was required except in the case of open market transactions; vi) determined that the legislature may, in no case, order credit quotas in favor of the State or individuals; vii) Congress was appointed, on behalf of society, as the main addressee of the Bank’s reporting exercise; and viii) the responsibility for inspection, surveillance, and control over Banco de la República was delegated to the President of the Republic. The members of the National Constitutional Assembly clearly understood that the benefits of low and stable inflation extend to the whole of society and contribute mto the smooth functioning of the economic system. Among the most important of these is that low inflation promotes the efficient use of productive resources by allowing relative prices to better guide the allocation of resources since this promotes economic growth and increases the welfare of the population. Likewise, low inflation reduces uncertainty about the expected return on investment and future asset prices. This increases the confidence of economic agents, facilitates long-term financing, and stimulates investment. Since the low-income population is unable to protect itself from inflation by diversifying its assets, and a high proportion of its income is concentrated in the purchase of food and other basic goods that are generally the most affected by inflationary shocks, low inflation avoids arbitrary redistribution of income and wealth.2 Moreover, low inflation facilitates wage negotiations, creates a good labor climate, and reduces the volatility of employment levels. Finally, low inflation helps to make the tax system more transparent and equitable by avoiding the distortions that inflation introduces into the value of assets and income that make up the tax base. From the monetary authority’s point of view, one of the most relevant benefits of low inflation is the credibility that economic agents acquire in inflation targeting, which turns it into an effective nominal anchor on price levels. Upon receiving its mandate, and using its autonomy, Banco de la República began to announce specific annual inflation targets as of 1992. Although the proposed inflation targets were not met precisely during this first stage, a downward trend in inflation was achieved that took it from 32.4% in 1990 to 16.7% in 1998. At that time, the exchange rate was kept within a band. This limited the effectiveness of monetary policy, which simultaneously sought to meet an inflation target and an exchange rate target. The Asian crisis spread to emerging economies and significantly affected the Colombian economy. The exchange rate came under strong pressure to depreciate as access to foreign financing was cut off under conditions of a high foreign imbalance. This, together with the lack of exchange rate flexibility, prevented a countercyclical monetary policy and led to a 4.2% contraction in GDP that year. In this context of economic slowdown, annual inflation fell to 9.2% at the end of 1999, thus falling below the 15% target set for that year. This episode fully revealed how costly it could be, in terms of economic activity, to have inflation and exchange rate targets simultaneously. Towards the end of 1999, Banco de la República announced the adoption of a new monetary policy regime called the Inflation Targeting Plan. This regime, known internationally as ‘Inflation Targeting,’ has been gaining increasing acceptance in developed countries, having been adopted in 1991 by New Zealand, Canada, and England, among others, and has achieved significant advances in the management of inflation without incurring costs in terms of economic activity. In Latin America, Brazil and Chile also adopted it in 1999. In the case of Colombia, the last remaining requirement to be fulfilled in order to adopt said policy was exchange rate flexibility. This was realized around September 1999, when the BDBR decided to abandon the exchange-rate bands to allow the exchange rate to be freely determined in the market.Consistent with the constitutional mandate, the fundamental objective of this new policy approach was “the achievement of an inflation target that contributes to maintaining output growth around its potential.”3 This potential capacity was understood as the GDP growth that the economy can obtain if it fully utilizes its productive resources. To meet this objective, monetary policy must of necessity play a countercyclical role in the economy. This is because when economic activity is below its potential and there are idle resources, the monetary authority can reduce the interest rate in the absence of inflationary pressure to stimulate the economy and, when output exceeds its potential capacity, raise it. This policy principle, which is immersed in the models for guiding the monetary policy stance, makes the following two objectives fully compatible in the medium term: meeting the inflation target and achieving a level of economic activity that is consistent with its productive capacity. To achieve this purpose, the inflation targeting system uses the money market interest rate (at which the central bank supplies primary liquidity to commercial banks) as the primary policy instrument. This replaced the quantity of money as an intermediate monetary policy target that Banco de la República, like several other central banks, had used for a long time. In the case of Colombia, the objective of the new monetary policy approach implied, in practical terms, that the recovery of the economy after the 1999 contraction should be achieved while complying with the decreasing inflation targets established by the BDBR. The accomplishment of this purpose was remarkable. In the first half of the first decade of the 2000s, economic activity recovered significantly and reached a growth rate of 6.8% in 2006. Meanwhile, inflation gradually declined in line with inflation targets. That was how the inflation rate went from 9.2% in 1999 to 4.5% in 2006, thus meeting the inflation target established for that year while GDP reached its potential level. After this balance was achieved in 2006, inflation rebounded to 5.7% in 2007, above the 4.0% target for that year due to the fact that the 7.5% GDP growth exceeded the potential capacity of the economy.4 After proving the effectiveness of the inflation targeting system in its first years of operation, this policy regime continued to consolidate as the BDBR and the technical staff gained experience in its management and state-of-the-art economic models were incorporated to diagnose the present and future state of the economy and to assess the persistence of inflation deviations and expectations with respect to the inflation target. Beginning in 2010, the BDBR established the long-term 3.0% annual inflation target, which remains in effect today. Lower inflation has contributed to making the macroeconomic environment more stable, and this has favored sustained economic growth, financial stability, capital market development, and the functioning of payment systems. As a result, reductions in the inflationary risk premia and lower TES and credit interest rates were achieved. At the same time, the duration of public domestic debt increased significantly going from 2.27 years in December 2002 to 5.86 years in December 2022, and financial deepening, measured as the level of the portfolio as a percentage of GDP, went from around 20% in the mid-1990s to values above 45% in recent years in a healthy context for credit institutions.Having been granted autonomy by the Constitution to fulfill the mandate of preserving the purchasing power of the currency, the tangible achievements made by Banco de la República in managing inflation together with the significant benefits derived from the process of bringing inflation to its long-term target, make the BDBR’s current challenge to return inflation to the 3.0% target even more demanding and pressing. As is well known, starting in 2021, and especially in 2022, inflation in Colombia once again became a serious economic problem with high welfare costs. The inflationary phenomenon has not been exclusive to Colombia and many other developed and emerging countries have seen their inflation rates move away from the targets proposed by their central banks.5 The reasons for this phenomenon have been analyzed in recent Reports to Congress, and this new edition delves deeper into the subject with updated information. The solid institutional and technical base that supports the inflation targeting approach under which the monetary policy strategy operates gives the BDBR the necessary elements to face this difficult challenge with confidence. In this regard, the BDBR reiterated its commitment to the 3.0% inflation target in its November 25 communiqué and expects it to be reached by the end of 2024.6 Monetary policy will continue to focus on meeting this objective while ensuring the sustainability of economic activity, as mandated by the Constitution. Analyst surveys done in March showed a significant increase (from 32.3% in January to 48.5% in March) in the percentage of responses placing inflation expectations two years or more ahead in a range between 3.0% and 4.0%. This is a clear indication of the recovery of credibility in the medium-term inflation target and is consistent with the BDBR’s announcement made in November 2022. The moderation of the upward trend in inflation seen in January, and especially in February, will help to reinforce this revision of inflation expectations and will help to meet the proposed targets. After reaching 5.6% at the end of 2021, inflation maintained an upward trend throughout 2022 due to inflationary pressures from both external sources, associated with the aftermath of the pandemic and the consequences of the war in Ukraine, and domestic sources, resulting from: strengthening of local demand; price indexation processes stimulated by the increase in inflation expectations; the impact on food production caused by the mid-2021 strike; and the pass-through of depreciation to prices. The 10% increase in the minimum wage in 2021 and the 16% increase in 2022, both of which exceeded the actual inflation and the increase in productivity, accentuated the indexation processes by establishing a high nominal adjustment benchmark. Thus, total inflation went to 13.1% by the end of 2022. The annual change in food prices, which went from 17.2% to 27.8% between those two years, was the most influential factor in the surge in the Consumer Price Index (CPI). Another segment that contributed significantly to price increases was regulated products, which saw the annual change go from 7.1% in December 2021 to 11.8% by the end of 2022. The measure of core inflation excluding food and regulated items, in turn, went from 2.5% to 9.5% between the end of 2021 and the end of 2022. The substantial increase in core inflation shows that inflationary pressure has spread to most of the items in the household basket, which is characteristic of inflationary processes with generalized price indexation as is the case in Colombia. Monetary policy began to react early to this inflationary pressure. Thus, starting with its September 2021 session, the BDBR began a progressive change in the monetary policy stance moving away from the historical low of a 1.75% policy rate that had intended to stimulate the recovery of the economy. This adjustment process continued without interruption throughout 2022 and into the beginning of 2023 when the monetary policy rate reached 12.75% last January, thus accumulating an increase of 11 percentage points (pp). The public and the markets have been surprised that inflation continued to rise despite significant interest rate increases. However, as the BDBR has explained in its various communiqués, monetary policy works with a lag. Just as in 2022 economic activity recovered to a level above the pre-pandemic level, driven, along with other factors, by the monetary stimulus granted during the pandemic period and subsequent months, so too the effects of the current restrictive monetary policy will gradually take effect. This will allow us to expect the inflation rate to converge to 3.0% by the end of 2024 as is the BDBR’s purpose.Inflation results for January and February of this year showed declining marginal increases (13 bp and 3 bp respectively) compared to the change seen in December (59 bp). This suggests that a turning point in the inflation trend is approaching. In other Latin American countries such as Chile, Brazil, Perú, and Mexico, inflation has peaked and has begun to decline slowly, albeit with some ups and downs. It is to be expected that a similar process will take place in Colombia in the coming months. The expected decline in inflation in 2023 will be due, along with other factors, to lower cost pressure from abroad as a result of the gradual normalization of supply chains, the overcoming of supply shocks caused by the weather, and road blockades in previous years. This will be reflected in lower adjustments in food prices, as has already been seen in the first two months of the year and, of course, the lagged effect of monetary policy. The process of inflation convergence to the target will be gradual and will extend beyond 2023. This process will be facilitated if devaluation pressure is reversed. To this end, it is essential to continue consolidating fiscal sustainability and avoid messages on different public policy fronts that generate uncertainty and distrust. 1 This Report to Congress includes Box 1, which summarizes the trajectory of Banco de la República over the past 100 years. In addition, under the Bank’s auspices, several books that delve into various aspects of the history of this institution have been published in recent years. See, for example: Historia del Banco de la República 1923-2015; Tres banqueros centrales; Junta Directiva del Banco de la República: grandes episodios en 30 años de historia; Banco de la República: 90 años de la banca central en Colombia. 2 This is why lower inflation has been reflected in a reduction of income inequality as measured by the Gini coefficient that went from 58.7 in 1998 to 51.3 in the year prior to the pandemic. 3 See Gómez Javier, Uribe José Darío, Vargas Hernando (2002). “The Implementation of Inflation Targeting in Colombia”. Borradores de Economía, No. 202, March, available at: https://repositorio.banrep.gov.co/handle/20.500.12134/5220 4 See López-Enciso Enrique A.; Vargas-Herrera Hernando and Rodríguez-Niño Norberto (2016). “The inflation targeting strategy in Colombia. An historical view.” Borradores de Economía, No. 952. https://repositorio.banrep.gov.co/handle/20.500.12134/6263 5 According to the IMF, the percentage change in consumer prices between 2021 and 2022 went from 3.1% to 7.3% for advanced economies, and from 5.9% to 9.9% for emerging market and developing economies. 6 https://www.banrep.gov.co/es/noticias/junta-directiva-banco-republica-reitera-meta-inflacion-3