Food Fraud Flashcards
Two types of food fraud
adulteration and misbranding
Definition of food fraud
deliberately placed food on market for financial gain to deceive the consumer
food fraud is…. to detect in…. and…..
harder to detect in longer/global supply chains
adulteration definition
sale of food that is unfit/harmful
‘process of lowering the nutritive value of food by removing vital components for adding substances of inferior qualtiy’
3 examples of adulteration
- recycling animal products into food chain
- diluting beverages with water
- adding adulterants to cover bad taste
Reason for food fraud
sellers want to profit to increase food production (ear more in less time)
what is an adulterant
a substance that lowers the quality of a product
types of adulterations (and examples)
- intentional [sand, water, stones]
- incidental [pestidicde residue, rodent droppings, larvae]
- metallic [arsenic, lead, tin from cans]
economic effect of adulteration
loss of consumer trust
devastation to local markets/food buisnesses
misbranding definition
prescense/absense of information on a label of a product which is false, deceptive or misleading
[deliberate misdescription]
examples of misbranding
- substituting products with cheaper variety.
- selling beef/poultry of an unknown origin
- false statements about ingredient source
greek/roman adulteration
- athens: public wine inspector
- pliny the elder; spices/breads in rome
usually wine colouring an issue
Arabic fraud control
= using scientific method by the ‘hisba’; the Muslim duty to prevent evil and promote good
- hisbah office responsible for market supervision and protection of commerce honesty
- has now spread: penalties include mocker, beating, product seizure, deportation
case study in medieval islam of fraud
aromatic oils falsified with sesame oil
almond oil falsified with roated nuts/apricot kernel and sesame oil
Frederick Accum
book; ‘death in the pot’ investgiated fraud of oilve oil, candies, vinegar falsified with sulfiric acid (was then deported due to enemies)
UK parliament and fraud
1834: created for commiisison of inquiry into food fraud based on frederick accum– > led to the adulteration of fraud act
emile zola
‘the belly of paris’ book; investigated wholesale food trade that led to french government to establish a public health service
How was the FDA formed
FDA in us; by upton sinclairs investigation of meat fraud industry
Pasta fraud
soft wheat flour + thickeners from animal blood sold as durum wheat semolina pasta
Italy Methanol 1986 Scandanl
alcohol content in wine acidified; led do 37% decrease in wine exports and rise in health scam
led to formation of “Agricola” and slow food movement
gutter oil
japan; china;
negative examples of circular economy of recycled waste oil for cooking
Meat Glue (Transglutaminase TG)
meat glue(frankenstein meat)= classified by FDA as safe but not by EFSA because of bacterial contamination and food poisoning risk
2013 Horse Meat Scandal
ireland had to withdraw food from market
led to consumer misconfidence
recalll
public health and food safety issue
example of misbranding
2008 China Melamine Scandal
milk powder was fortified with melamine to boost protein due to water dilution but dangerous as it causes nitrogen poisoning=
hence milk/pet products all had to be recalled
purpose of labelling
inform consumer of prouduct
convince consumer to buy product
why does labelling need to be regulated
- prevent fraud/misleading info
2. discolse information to make informed decision
4 requirements of a label
- identity
- ingriedients
- net content
- manufactuerer, packer, distributor identity
examples of label fraud
bio--> activia toblerone--> voblerone bari mozarella di laita/parmesan spaghetti alfredo iitallian sounding food
list some common food frauds
olive oil fish saffron honey vanilla coffee balsamic vinegar
how is fish frauded
- > mislabeled (quality; cheaper variet sold as expensive)
- > type (i.e. false tuna)
- > origin (scallops made form shark)
how is saffron frauded
very hard to extract (handpicked and needs a lot)
fake= tumeric, safflower, dyed onoion
to detect fake= place in water and see if coloured die comes off
types of oilve oil
- extra virgin
- virgin
- olive oil
EOO properties
only 5% of global olive oil first cold press mechanically made low acidity (0.8-1%) no solvents/chemicals green-gold colour
EVO properties
first cold press
under 2% acidity
no solvents/chemicals
OO properties
mix of virgin and refined oils acidity under 1.5% higher smoke point solvents/chemicals mechanical production
how is olive oil frauded
mixed with hazelnut oil/peddle seeds
purpose of food fraud detection tech
- protect brand reputation
- detect counterfeiting
- public safety
types of food fraud detection tech
- authentication of products (watergrams, barcodes, invisible ink, holograms ids)
- track + trace of products in the supply chain (electronic product codes or radio frequency IDs)
