Fraud Food Ingredients

A new report published in the April Journal of Food Science includes the first ever public database which compiles reports on food fraud. Included are the most fraud-prone ingredients in the food supply, the most recent analytical detection methods and the type of fraud that has been reported. This new report has been a compilation of records from scholarly journals which was created by the U.S. Pharmacopeial Convention (USP) a nonprofit scientific organization that will identify the quality and the purity of food ingredients. This study is more than just an in depth assessment of various food ingredients, it also includes dietary supplements and pharmaceuticals as well.

The food standards of USP for ingredients are published in the Food Chemicals Codex (FCC) compendium. According to the new baseline formulated, interested parties may be able to assess the risks of specific brands or products. It includes a large 1,305 records for food fraud based on a total of 660 references like media and public records.

Researchers of this study are Drs. Jeffrey C. Moore (lead author) and Markus Lipp of USP, and Dr. John Spink of Michigan State University. Dr. Spink further explains that “Food fraud and economically motivated adulteration have not received the warranted attention given the potential danger they present… we believe that publication of this paper in the Journal of Food Science will allow us to advance the science of food fraud prevention.”

Based on the results of the lengthy study, the most adulterated ingredients are olive oil, milk, honey, saffron, orange juice, apple juice and coffee. And with these results, hopefully there will be a development of strategies to effectively detect food fraud.

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