British food and drinks companies are losing over £11.2bn to fraud and error annually which is equal to over 85% of their total profits.
The food and drink industry can boost its profitability by £4.48bn, or more than 34% by tackling fraud, according to a report by University of Portsmouth.
The report, Minimising Fraud and Maximising Value in the UK Food and Drink Sector 2014, surveyed around 73 listed food and drink industry companies with total annual sales of over £200bn.
By removing fraud and error, the companies will be capable of lowering prices for the customers and the cost of groceries is anticipated to be reduced by as much as five pence in every pound.
University of Portsmouth visiting professor Jim Gee said: "We estimate that of the 58 listed food and drink companies which reported profits, six would increase their profitability by between one and nine per cent; 31 would do so by between 10 - 49 per cent; 15 would do so by between 50 - 99 per cent; six companies would increase their profitability by more than 100 per cent.
"Of the 15 companies which made losses; three would make a profit not a loss; eight would reduce their losses by up to 10 per cent and four by over 10 per cent."
Image: The food and drink industry can boost its profitability by £4.48bn by tackling fraud. Photo: courtesy of antpkr / FreeDigitalPhotos.net.
