News

The Michigan State University’s Food Fraud Prevention Academy have launched their latest free Massive Open Online Course (MOOC) (link).  The target delegates are both procurement professionals and food safety managers.  The course aims to foster a collaborative approach between the two disciplines.  It includes food fraud-specific supply chain disruptions, vulnerability assessments, and practical guidance on how to fulfil GFSI requirements, for example with a template for supplier self-assessment questionnaires.  This new course is one of a suite of MOOCs designed by Professor John Spink, a member of FAN’s steering board.

Photo by Nick Morrison on Unsplash

The authors of a recent article (here – purchase required) report a novel approach to testing vegetable oil species and to identifying adulteration of sesame oil with soyabean oil.  They used excitation-emission matrix (EEM) fluorescence spectroscopy to generate multivariate data sets then tested three chemometric methods to build classification models. Two of the models gave Total Recognition Rates of 100% when presented with unknown samples of pure vegetable oils and of adulterated sesame oil (the lowest % adulteration tested is not specified in the abstract).  The authors conclude that their model can quantify the % adulteration of sesame oil with soyabean oil.

A recent article (here – open access) gives an overview of non-targeted approaches to authenticity screening.  It is written at a level of technical detail useful to laboratory analysts or technically-informed industry customers.  It discusses spectroscopic techniques (NMR, IR and MS) and the use of machine learning to derive classification sets from reference sample sets.  It focusses, particularly, on how to deal with the statistical probability of a subsequent false-accept or a false-reject verdict on a test sample based upon an incorrect or uncertain (“grey”) classification.

Photo by Markus Winkler on Unsplash

A comprehensive review of lipid characterisation in nuts and oily fruits (here – open access) includes a section reviewing recent “lipidomics” publications for authenticating premium oils.  The scope includes nut oils, seed oils, olive and avocado oils, and geographic fingerprinting of the origin of almond or peanut oil.

Photo by Roberta Sorge on Unsplash

The annual “State of Counterfeiting in India” report has been published for 2022 (here) by the Authentication Solutions Providers Association (ASPA).  As well as counterfeit spirits, it highlights counterfeit agrochemicals as a particular concern and estimates the incidence as 30%.  Sub-quality counterfeit agrochemicals can lead to food safety risks from unexpected pesticide residues, metabolites or excipients.  Crops grown in India, and in neighbouring countries which may import Indian agrochemicals, are exported and eaten around the world.

Photo by Arjun MJ on Unsplash

Goat meat has a price premium over sheep meat in many countries. They are visually very similar.  The authors of this study (here – purchase required) report a novel DNA test that does not require amplification using heating cycles (PCR).  This makes it suitable for field-based testing.  They have applied the isothermal polymerase spiral reaction (PSR) assay to goatmeat for the first time. Their assay is targeted against the mitochondrial DNA and can be read based on a visual colour change after the addition of SYBR Green I dye to the amplified product. The possibility of cross-amplification was ruled out by testing other meat species (buffalo, cattle, chicken, pig, sheep, and ostrich). PSR could be undertaken at 62 °C for 60 min with the limit of detection of 0.5 ng DNA (approximately equivalent to 0.1% w/w of meat). The PSR was found efficient in the detection of not only raw meat but also meat heated to 121 °C for 30 min. When combined with the alkaline lysis method of DNA extraction, the goat-specific PSR takes 90 min of sample analysis time.

Photo by Strvnge Films on Unsplash

Coffee beans from different regions and of different species have different commercial values. A recent paper (here – open access) reported a method to differentiate green beans from different species (Arabica vs Rustica) and harvested from different regions of Vietnam. The test technique was ultraviolet–visible (UV–VIS) spectroscopy combined with the Partial Least Squares with Discriminant Analysis (PLS–DA) model. Spectra of 147 authenticated samples were used to build prediction models. The authors reported that accuracy of species differentiation was 100%.  Accuracy of regional differentiation varied from 88% to 96%. They concluded that the results show the potential of UV–VIS spectroscopy databases to verify the authenticity of green coffee beans.

Photo by Gerson Cifuentes on Unsplash

The EU and UK legal definition of honey is specifically the product of Apis mellifera (Western Honey Bee).  It excludes the product of Apis cerana (Asian Honey Bee).  The authors of a recent study (here – purchase required) used multivariate statistical analysis on the GC-MS of fatty acids to identify two fatty acids (8-hydroxyoctanoic acid and 3,10-dihydroxydecanoic acid) that can be used as markers to differentiate honeys from the two different bee species.

Photo by David Clode on Unsplash

The authors of a recent study (here – purchase required) investigated the effect of using different chemometric models to differentiate rice varieties using the same multivariate technique (Raman spectroscopy, also using FT-IR as a comparator) and the same reference sets of authentic rice.  They found a significant difference between method performance depending on the classification model underpinning the chemometrics.  They reported the optimum model to be Supervised Kohonen Map with Multiplicative Scatter Correction (SKM + MSC).  They have proposed a Raman spectroscopy protocol which gives a reliable and rapid point-of-use screening test for rice grain variety.

Photo by Pierre Bamin on Unsplash

Edible poppy seeds may be diluted with poppy seeds that do not meet specifications on alkaloid content (e.g. have not been harvested or washed following specified protocols) or with cheaper species such as sesame or chia.  In a recent proof-of-concept study (here – open access) the authors propose a panel of 47 compounds, primarily alkaloids and their metabolites, whose ratios can be used as analytical markers of sophisticated dilution or adulteration.  Measurement is by LC-ToF.  They compared this favourably with a traditional microscopy approach and validated it with twenty three samples (eight of which were botanically verified) and eight adulterants.

Photo by Wolfgang Hasselmann on Unsplash

Adulteration of goats milk with cows milk is a safety hazard (to allergenic consumers) as well as an economic risk.

The detection of caseins by mass spectrometry requires the selection of suitable characteristic peptides. A recent paper (here – open access) reported developing and optimising a MALDI-TOF MS method to detect the three most representative specific peptides of caseins in cow milk. It was found that 2,5-dihydroxybenzoic acid (DHB) was a more suitable MALDI matrix than α-cyano-4-hydroxycinnamic acid (CHCA), giving an LoD of 0.1 mg/L for α, β-casein.  A protocol was developed and proven to detect adulteration of goats milk with cows milk at 1% or more.  The method was applied to Chinese market samples of five brands of commercial goat milk.  Specific peptides of bovine casein were detected in four of them.

The authors conclude that the method is reliable, high throughput, rapid, has simple preprocessing, and can be a powerful tool for prewarning of dairy allergens.

Photo by Eiliv Aceron on Unsplash

The latest blog from the Michegan State University’s Food Fraud Prevention Think Tank (here) summarises a very useful self-assessment checklist for food businesses to assess whether they are adequately assessing their fraud vulnerability.  It recommends repeating this gap analysis at least annually.  The blog also includes a more specific self-assessment checklist for businesses that claim organic certification.

The EC Joint Research Centre (JRC) have published their monthly collation of global food fraud media and official control reports (here).  FAN member Bruno Sechet, director of Integralim food safety consultancy, has kindly formatted the data into the attached infographic.

The authors of a recent report (here – open access) have collated and indexed nearly 2000 official reports and media reports of meat fraud in China over a 10-year period.  They have data-mined insight on the most frequent types of fraud (e.g. adulteration, counterfeiting), affected types and cuts of meat, and most affected provinces of China.  The results are presented in tabular format.

Access to their detailed database is available on request.

1% is widely used as a compliance threshold for undeclared meat species.  It is based on empirical studies which concluded that adventitious cross-contamination is unlikely to occur above 1% if cleaning protocols, typical of meat industry best practice, are used on cutting and processing equipment.

 A recent study (here – purchase required) challenges this assumption.  The authors studied cleaning protocols and adventitious cross-contamination of pork into ground beef within small-scale meat processors and butchers shops in Quebec, Canada.  They recognise that full strip-down and cleaning of grinders is impractical in these situations and is not required by local hygiene regulations.  Therefore, in practice, they found that cross-contamination of pork in ground beef can often be above 1% when businesses are operating legally and in full compliance with hygiene rules.  They recommend not using 1% as a fraud compliance threshold in this context as it could expose small-scale processors to unwarranted sanctions.

Photo by Kyle Mackie on Unsplash

A link to the 2016 FAO Imported Food Control manual has been added to the FAN "Policy" resources.

This is one of the series of FAO manuals describing how to set up legal frameworks and testing infrastructure for a variety of food safety issues.  Although not specifically fraud-focussed, the Imported Food Control manual does include adulteration as one of the risk factors and has a number of useful pointers and checklists when setting up a national import checks framework.

It is difficult to verify meat species in highly-processed foods that have insufficient intact DNA.  One approach is to test and interpret protein patterns.  This is far from straightforward.

A recent paper (here – purchase required) describes an advancement.  The authors used gel-eluted liquid fraction entrapment electrophoresis (GELFrEE) to separate heat-stable peptide markers, rather than proteins, prior to measurement by MALDI-ToF-MS.  They report this “peptideomics” as easier to interpret than proteomics. GELFrEE fractionation has been previously used for microbial proteins and clinical samples but rarely applied to meat speciation.  It is analogous to SDS-PAGE but protein/peptide fraction are collected in the solution phase at the end of the run. It enables large sample loadings (max. 5.0 mg/strip) improving sensitivity for low-concentration markers with a dynamic range from 3.5-500 kDa and is suitable for automation.  The authors discriminated pork/waterbuffalo in heat-processed mixes down to 0.5% w/w.

Photo by Alexander Schimmeck on Unsplash

If you are a food business and have a measurement issue that you'd like to resolve then why not apply and see if you can get the nation's top measurement laboratories on the case?

Over 90% of businesses completing an A4I Project have reported business growth due to increased productivity, and over 60% saw their competitiveness improved in their markets.

You can find out more about how we support UK
companies through the A4I programme here, and for information about the Programme and how to apply, please visit A4I.info.                                             
Start your application here!                                        
Competition opened on Monday 24 April

Monofloral honeys are generally defined by their pollen count; to be labelled as monofloral, the honey must contain a minimum proportion of pollen from the named flora.  These minimum legal criteria are not consistent between different EU Member States. Pollen identification by microscopy is also becoming a rarer skill amongst analysts. 

In this proof of concept study (here – open access) the authors propose an alternative approach using the pattern of polyphenols as a marker of botanical origin.  They measured a panel of polyphenols by UPLC-MSMS and used Principal Component Analysis to classify them for Hungarian acacia honeys.  The results not only correlated with botanical but also with regional origin.  The variation was driven by three key polyphenols; caffeic acid, 4-hydroxybenzoic acid and p-coumaric acid.

Photo by Wolfgang Hasselmann on Unsplash

The USDA published (here) their new rules on verification and enforcement of Organic certification in January this year.  We are now into the implementation period.  Businesses must comply by 19 March 2024.  US retailers are starting to map out exactly what the new rules mean for them, typified by an article in last week’s trade press (here). There are also requirements for food businesses that export Organic products to the US, with a mandatory electronic import certificate and the need for all agents in the supply chain to be certified.  The new procedures should strengthen traceability and reduce the opportunity for fraud.

Photo by Tingey Injury Law Firm on Unsplash