A specialist food crime unit should be set up in the UK in the wake of the horsemeat scandal, a government-commissioned review has recommended.
Prof Chris Elliott, of the Institute for Global Food Security at Queen's University Belfast, said the UK has high standards of food safety.
But he said the scandal, uncovered in January, "clearly showed criminal activity in the global food chain".
He called for "intelligence hubs" to gather information on food crime.
After the initial discovery by inspectors of horsemeat in processed beef products, horse DNA was found in other ready meals.
Prof Elliott's report said the food industry should not relax efforts to provide safe food, "but must also consider the prevention of food crime a primary objective".
He also called on the food industry and the government to create "intelligence hubs" to gather, analyse and spread information about food crime.
'Criminal activity'Prof Elliot said: "Food production is a global industry and we need to ensure that our high standards are maintained across the whole supply chain.
"The horsemeat crisis clearly showed criminal activity in the global food chain and while the next stage of my review will gather more evidence on this, it is right that measures are in place to further protect consumers. The food industry and the government are already striving to achieve this."
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French food producer makes order
Comigel HQ in Metz, north-east France, asks its subsidiary, Tavola in Luxembourg, to make food products - including beef lasagne for Findus.
Factory orders meat
The Tavola factory orders the meat from Spanghero in the south of France.
Subcontractor used
Spanghero contacts a subcontractor in Cyprus to source the meat.
Subcontractor enlists trader
The Cypriot subcontractor in turn contacts a trader in the Netherlands.
Trader orders from Romania
The trader in the Netherlands places an order for meat with abattoirs in Romania.
Abattoirs send meat to France
The meat from the abattoirs travels to Spanghero in France. However, Romania rejects claims that it was responsible for wrongly describing the horsemeat from its abattoirs as beef. Horsemeat is always labelled as such, they say. The Romanian authorities claim records show orders had been for horse carcass - easily distinguishable from beef.
Meat used to make products
Spanghero sends the meat to the Comigel subsidiary's factory in Luxembourg before the finished products are supplied to Findus and retailers across Europe, including the UK. The president of Comigel says the company was unaware the meat was coming from abroad.
Horsemeat found in Ireland and UK
Tests by Irish authorities have found equine DNA in beefburgers made by firms in the Irish Republic and the UK. Traces of horsemeat have also been found in stored meat at another plant in Ireland and one in Northern Ireland. In mainland Britain, police and officials probing alleged horsemeat mislabelling have carried out raids at a slaughterhouse in West Yorkshire and a meat firm near Aberystwyth. Three men were later arrested on suspicion of offences under the Fraud Act..
The horsemeat scandal resulted in product recalls by a number of supermarkets and food producers, both in the UK and across Europe, and threw the spotlight on the food industry's supply chain.
The report was commissioned by the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (Defra) and the Department of Health.
Environment Secretary Owen Paterson said: "I am pleased that Prof Elliott's interim review recognises that there are good systems in place to ensure UK consumers have access to some of the safest food in the world. We want to keep it that way.
"It is appalling that anyone was able to defraud the public by passing off horsemeat as beef. That is why I commissioned an urgent review into the integrity of our food network."
The Food Standards Agency said it agreed that central government, local authorities and the food industry needed to work together in a proactive response to food crime.
It said that it was already working to detect and deter food crime. "For example, we are carrying out a study to test that products which are labelled from the UK are in fact from the UK, we have introduced unannounced inspections of meat-cutting plants and we have increased to £2m the funding to local authorities to support their own testing programmes," a statement said.
The FSA added that it was working with the European Commission to establish an European Union food fraud unit.
The Food and Drink Federation, which represents manufacturers, said it had developed a guide to best practice to help protect manufacturers and consumers.
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