Fraud and Misrepresentation in the Lump Charcoal Market in the United States: A Closer Look Inside the Bag

Abstract In the United States, charcoal is widely used for recreational purposes, particularly as fuel for outdoor grilling. Unknown to many consumers, charcoal production has profound environmental impacts worldwide and is too often linked to deforestation and illegal activities involving fraud and misrepresentation in the forest products supply chain. At present, the reliability of the US charcoal market is largely unknown. For 15 lump charcoal brands in the US commercial market, we evaluated the taxonomic composition, claims of origin, bag weight, and lump size. All 15 brands analyzed exhibited substantial inconsistencies compared to the information provided on the packaging. These discrepancies included taxonomic misidentifications, misrepresented claims of origin, and discrepancies with bag weight. This study is broadly consistent with previous findings of fraud and misrepresentation in the forest products supply chain in the United States and in the charcoal trade in Europe and suggests that lump charcoal consumers are frequently using material that differs substantially from product claims.