Prof. Dr. Chris Elliott OBE

Thammasat University, Queen’s University Belfast

Professor of Food Security, Centre of Excellence in Global Food Security, Thammasat University, Belfast. Honororay Professor Queen’s University, Belfast. Professor Chris Elliott is a global leader in food systems research, founder of the Institute for Global Food Security, and author of over 600 highly cited scientific studies advancing food authenticity, safety, and resilience worldwide.

Presentation:
Due diligence and deception: How EUDR Is turning global food trade into a compliance minefield

Key Points:
• EUDR transforms deforestation from a not only a sustainability issue but also one of legal, financial and reputational risks
• Fraud risk will likely rise sharply as suppliers try to bypass or fake compliance
• Traditional audits and paper-based traceability will no longer be sufficient EUDR requires verifiable, data-driven proof of origin and land-use history, not just supplier declarations.
• Businesses must move upstream into science-based verification combining satellite data, digital traceability chemical fingerprinting, and AI-driven risk models
• The winners under EUDR will be those who treat compliance as a competitive advantage