|
April 8, 2012
from
PreventDisease Website
In new research published in the April
Journal of Food Science, analyses of the first known public database
compiling reports on food fraud and economically motivated
adulteration in food highlight the most fraud-prone ingredients in
the food supply; analytical detection methods; and the type of fraud
reported.
Based on a review of records from
scholarly journals, the top seven adulterated ingredients in the
database are,
-
olive oil
-
milk
-
honey
-
saffron
-
orange juice
-
coffee
-
apple juice
The database was created by the U.S. Pharmacopeial Convention (USP), a nonprofit scientific organization
that develops standards to help ensure the identity, quality and
purity of food ingredients, dietary supplements and pharmaceuticals.
USP's food ingredient standards are
published in the Food Chemicals Codex (FCC) compendium. The new
database provides baseline information to assist interested parties
in assessing the risks of specific products.
It includes a total of 1,305 records for
food fraud based on a total of 660 scholarly, media and other
publicly available reports. Records are divided by scholarly
research (1,054 records) and media reports (251 records).
Researchers are Drs. Jeffrey C. Moore
(lead author) and Markus Lipp of USP, and Dr. John Spink
of Michigan State University.
Food fraud was recently defined in a report commissioned by the
Department of Homeland Security and funded by the National Center
for Food Protection and Defense (University of Minnesota) as a
collective term that encompasses the deliberate substitution,
addition, tampering or misrepresentation of food, food ingredients
or food packaging, or false or misleading statements made about a
product for economic gain.
A more specific type of fraud,
intentional or economically motivated adulteration of food
ingredients has been defined by USP's Expert Panel on Food
Ingredient Intentional Adulterants as the fraudulent addition of nonauthentic substances
or removal or replacement of authentic
substances without the purchaser's knowledge for economic gain of
the seller.
"This database is a critical step in
protecting consumers," said Dr. Spink.
"Food fraud and economically
motivated adulteration have not received the warranted attention
given the potential danger they present. We recently defined
these terms [see the Journal of Food Science, November 2011] and
now we are defining the scope and scale. As many do not believe
a concept or risk exists if it does not appear in a scholarly
journal, we believe that publication of this paper in the
Journal of Food Science will allow us to advance the science of
food fraud prevention."
While traditionally considered primarily
an economic issue and less a consumer safety threat, authors of the
paper, Development and Application of a Database of Food Ingredient
Fraud and Economically Motivated Adulteration from 1980 to 2010,
defined empirically that in some ways food fraud may be more risky
than traditional threats to the food supply.
The adulterants used in these activities
often are unconventional and designed to avoid detection through
routine analyses.
Melamine, for example, was considered neither a
potential contaminant nor an adulterant in the food supply before
the episodes of adulteration of pet food in 2007 and infant formula
and other milk products in 2008 (with tainted products still
appearing sporadically today, principally in China).
Although, as records from this database
indicate, melamine was used as an adulterant to mimic protein as
early as 1979; however, this remained virtually unknown until 2007.
Hence, testing for melamine was not included in routine quality
assurance or quality control analyses.
Additionally, current food protection systems are not designed to
look for the nearly infinite number of potential adulterants that
may show up in the food supply.
"Food ingredients and additives
present a unique risk because they are used in so many food
products and often do not have visual or functional properties
that enable easy discrimination from other similar ingredients
or adulterants throughout the supply chain," the paper states.
Glycerin, for example, is a sweet,
clear, colorless liquid that is difficult to differentiate by sight
or smell from other sweet, clear, colorless liquid syrups -
including toxic diethylene glycol, which in the past has been
substituted for glycerin with deadly consequences.
Diethylene glycol has been fraudulently
added to wines, and also used as an adulterant of glycerin used in
pharmaceuticals.
In addition to identifying specific food ingredients and food
categories vulnerable to adulteration, the researchers also analyzed
the types of analytical detection methods used to discover the
fraud, as well as the type of fraud using three categories:
replacement, addition or removal.
The authors found 95 percent of records
involved replacement - an authentic material replaced partially or
completely by another, less expensive substitute. An example is the
partial substitution of olive oil with hazelnut oil.
Other examples include potentially
harmful substitution of toxic Japanese star anise for Chinese star
anise (a common spice used in foods), and the partial replacement of
low-quality spices with lead tetraoxide or lead chromate to imitate
the color of higher-quality spices.
Other common adultered foods:
-
TUMERIC
Adulterant -
Metanil Yellow and Kesari Dal (Added to enhance the yellow
color of a food substance)
-
GREEN CHILIES, GREEN PEAS, OTHER
GREEN VEGGIES
Adulterant -
Malachite Green (To accentuate the bright, glowing green
color of the vegetable)
-
MUSTARD SEEDS AND MUSTARD OIL
Adulterant -
Argemone seeds (used to add bulk and weight)
-
EVAPORATED MILK, CONDENSED MILK
AND SOME SOY MILKS
Adulterant -
Starch (used to give it a thick, rich texture)
-
ICE CREAM
Adulterant -
Washing powder (used to add a bright white sheen and
lightness of flavor)
-
INSTANT COFFEE
Adulterant -
Tamarind seeds, chicory powder (used to add bulk and color)
Utility of
Database
The database provides information that can be useful in evaluating
current and emerging risks for food fraud.
In addition to providing a baseline
understanding of the vulnerability of individual ingredients, the
database offers information about potential adulterants that could
reappear in the supply chain for particular ingredients.
For
example, records in the database regarding melamine as an adulterant
for high-protein-content ingredients date back to 1979.
Speaking to that example, the paper
notes,
"Perhaps if this information had
been readily available to risk assessors before the 2007 and
2008 incidents of melamine adulteration and wheat gluten and
milk powders, it could have helped risk assessors anticipate
these adulteration possibilities."
This information also could have
stimulated research aimed at developing new methods to measure
protein content, which could signal adulteration with melamine and
other unexpected constituents - an effort that has only recently
gained substantial interest.
Another practical application of the database involves analytical
testing strategies to detect food fraud.
A commonly used strategy at present is
testing for the absence of specific adulterants - an approach that
excels at detecting known adulterants at very low levels but has the
critical limitation of not necessarily being able to detect unknown
adulterants. An alternative strategy is compendial testing (via FCC
and other sources) for the identity, authenticity and purity of a
food ingredient (i.e., what should be present and in what quantity
instead of what should not be present).
While this testing may not always be
capable of detecting adulterants at trace levels, it is capable of
detecting both known and unknown adulterants.
"Well-designed compendial testing
approaches can be very powerful tool for guarding against food
fraud," said Dr. Moore.
"Their potential to detect both
unknown and known adulterants is a significant benefit in an
environment where no one knows and is worried about what harmful
adulterant criminals will use to create the next generation of
fake food ingredients."
The USP Food Fraud Database is publicly
accessible at www.foodfraud.org.
How to Expose Food Adulteration in Less Than 5
Minutes
January 26, 2012
from
PreventDisease Website
Official systems set for food safety and
prevention are constantly outdone by a hidden and booming food
adulteration business.
The onus of safeguarding one's family
against contaminated food, unfortunately falls on citizens
themselves. Here are some quick do-it-yourself tricks to expose some
common adulteration techniques used by the food industry.
From loose packed ground spices, to wet produce such as milk, to dry
spices and grains, almost everything you can buy has a potential of
being adulterated, even if purchased from a reputable grocery
retailer.
While some of these could be less harmful, such using as water or
bran, chemicals and coloring agents such as Metanil Yellow, Lead
Chromate, Sudan Red III, are known to be carcinogenic.
The chairman of the Consumer Guidance
Society of India, Dr Sitaram Dixit lists a few commonly
used food items and simple home tests that take no more than 5
minutes.
1. TUMERIC
-
Adulterant
Metanil Yellow and Kesari Dal (Added to enhance the yellow
color of a food substance)
-
Test
Dissolve half a spoon full of turmeric powder in 20 ml of
lukewarm water. Add a few drops of lemon juice or any
commonly available acid at home. If the water turns pink,
violet or purple, it shows the presence of Metanil yellow.
-
Harmful Effects
It's highly carcinogenic and if consumed over a continuous
period of time it can also cause stomach disorders.
2. GREEN CHILIES, GREEN PEAS, OTHER
GREEN VEGGIES
-
Adulterant
Malachite Green (To accentuate the bright, glowing green
color of the vegetable)
-
Test
Take a small portion of the sample and place it over a
moistened white blotting paper. Colored impressions on the
blotting paper indicate the presence of Malachite green.
-
Harmful effects
It's a colored dye that has proven to be carcinogenic for
humans if consumed over a long period of time.
3. MUSTARD SEEDS AND MUSTARD OIL
-
Adulterant
Argemone seeds (used to add bulk and weight)
-
Test
When pressed or crushed, argemone seeds are white inside and
have a rough outer surface whereas mustard seeds are smooth
on the outside and are yellow on the inside.
-
Harmful effects
The consumption of these could cause epidemic dropsy and
severe glaucoma. Young children and senior citizens with
poor immunity are more susceptible this.
4. EVAPORATED MILK, CONDENSED MILK AND
SOME SOY MILKS
-
Adulterant
Starch (used to give it a thick, rich texture)
-
Test
Take a small sample of the product in a test tube, add 20 ml
of water and bring to a boil. Cool to room temperature and
add a drop or two of iodine solution. If the solution turns
blue, it marks the presence of starch.
-
Harmful effects
Unhygienic, unprocessed water and starch can cause stomach
disorders. Starch greatly reduces the nutritional value of
the ingredient.
5. ICE CREAM
-
Adulterant
Washing powder (used to add a bright white sheen and
lightness of flavor)
-
Test
Squeeze a few drops of lemon juice on the ice cream. If it
starts to froth and bubble, it marks the presence of washing
powder.
-
Harmful effects
It can cause severe stomach and liver disorders
6. BLACK PEPPER
-
Adulterant
Papaya seeds (used to add bulk)
-
Test
Float the sample in alcohol. Mature black pepper corns will
sink where as papaya seeds will float to the surface.
-
Harmful effects
Papaya seeds can cause serious liver problems and stomach
disorders.
7. INSTANT COFFEE
-
Adulterant
Tamarind seeds, chicory powder (used to add bulk and color)
-
Test
Gently sprinkle coffee on the surface of water in a glass.
The coffee will float whereas chicory will start to sink
within a few seconds. Also, the falling chicory powder will
leave a trail of color behind due to the large amounts of
caramel it contains.
-
Harmful effects
These can cause diarrhea, stomach disorders, giddiness and
severe joint pains.
|