This paper (open access) reviews trends in EU RASFF notifications for Sudan dye adulteration of palm oil. Although there was a sharp decrease in cases after the issue was first reported in 2004, and widespread testing introduced, the problem has not gone away and reported incidents have stayed steady for nearly 20 years. The economic motivation to disguise cheaper oils as palm oil using a red dye is perennial. Much of the adulterated produce originates from West Africa, and there is evidence that the problem is worst for palm oil on the local market than for exports.
The authors recommend cheaper, portable tests such as NIR as alternatives to traditional laboratory testing that can be used for verification. Although detection limits and confidence in identification cannot match techniques such as LC-MSMS, NIR can detect around 0.01-0.05% which is sufficient for economically-motivated adulteration in the crude palm oil.
Chart from the paper
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