News

There are now 3 initiatives to define key terms and concepts associated with food authenticity and fraud, or coordinate and develop standards for food authenticity methods. 

At its 23rd meeting in May, the Codex Committee on Food Import and Export Inspection and Certification Systems (CCFICS) has agreed to form an electronic working group (EWG) to review other CODEX texts and to create a definition and scope for Food Fraud/ Food Integrity/ Food Authenticity/ related terms. Creating the EWG is a formal activity for CODEX that will start the review of if – then how – Food Fraud will be incorporated into the formal Codex Alimentarius (world food code). If agreed to and it progresses forward, it will be a four to six year process until Food Fraud would be in the formal CODEX texts.

More details can be found at: CCFICS Food Authenticity

CEN has formed a new Workshop - CEN WS/86 entitled - Authenticity in the feed and food chain – General principles and basic requirements. The workshop will aim at developing consensus-based  recommendations for definitions of key terms and concepts, and to outline principles and basic requirements related to food authenticity.This workshop is related to one of the objectives in an EU Project AUTHENT-NET. CEN hopes to deliver a CEN Working Agreement in May 2018.

More details can be found at : CEN WA on Food Authenticity

CEN has also formed a new Food Authenticity Coordination Group which held a kick-off meeting in Brussels on 15 June. The aim is to coordinate food authenticity methodology in other CEN Technical Committees. The UK representatives on this new CG include LGC and the Food Standards Agency. More details will be included in our July 2017 Newsletter.

A Chatham House report warns of 'chokepoints' in the supply of food, such as the Suez Canal, the US rail network and the Turkish Straits, could become 'epicentres of systemic disruption'. It also reports that the world’s food supplies are in danger as climate change and the increasing reliance on global trade threaten to create shortages and sudden, dramatic increases in prices. The report’s authors warned of a growing risk  to food security with the potential for systemic disruption. Investment in infrastructure lags demand growth: critical networks in major crop-producing regions are weak and ageing, and extra capacity is urgently needed.  

Read the report at: Climate change vulnerabilities of food security

Italian researchers have measured the H, C, N and O isotopic ratios of 190 samples of different soft fruits (strawberries, raspberries, blueberries, blackberries and whitecurrants, redcurrants and blackcurrants) produced in a northern Italian region and at two sites in Romania and Poland collected over three harvest years. The different soft fruits showed a typical range for one or more isotopic parameters that can be used to verify the authenticity of the fruit species declared on the label. The δ¹³C and δ¹⁵N of pulp and the δ¹⁸O of juice can be considered effective tools for identifying the different geographical origin of fruit. There was a significant effect of crop cover on juice δ¹⁸O, and fertilisation practices on pulp δ¹⁵N.

Read the abstract at: SIRA of soft fruit

This study evaluated the application of relative quantification of unique heat-stable species specific peptides in highly processed meat proteins. Using nano-LC-QTOF-MS/MS, 20 new, heat-stable peptide markers unique to chicken, duck and goose were identified. The method enabled detection of 1% (w/w) of chicken and 1% (w/w) pork in a mixture of the meat of three species, as well as 0.8% (w/w) beef proteins in commercial poultry frankfurters. This method includes a correction factor for each protein, based on the peptide MS detection probabilities, which are influenced by the physicochemical properties of the peptide. Considerable differences in abundance of myofibrillar and sarcoplasmic proteins were observed between samples and illegal proportions of ingredients were discovered.

Read the abstract at: Meat species quantification using peptide markers

This study examines the variations in isotopes and trace elements in relation to grape variety, environmental factors and provenance in order to address the wine authenticity in Cyprus. ICP-AES assessed the wines’ elemental content. SNIF-NMR and isotope ratio mass spectrometry methodologies determined in authentic and commercial wines the distribution of the naturally occurring stable isotopes of the deuterium/hydrogen (D/H) ratios and carbon (13/12C) in ethanol of wine and oxygen ratio (18/16O) in wine water. PCA (principle component analysis) highlighted the importance of grape variety and provenance, while supervised analysis pinpointed the vineyard effect and highlighted the contribution of the vintage year. These results can be incorporated to the EU Wine Isotopic Databank database providing both a guide and a tool for eventual candidatures for denomination of origin and support both Cypriot wine and winemakers. 

Parma ham is one of Italy’s most cherished specialities and one of its most famous GI brands. In order to bear the name Parma, the ham must be produced in accordance with a stringent rules laid down in its PDO specification, using locally bred pork leg and sea salt. Italy’s food police unit collected DNA samples from pigs from 30 farms and slaughterhouses in northern Italy earlier this year. Parma and Prosciutto di San Daniele producers have been charged with importing pig sperm from Denmark in an attempt to breed leaner pigs, which contravenes the rules allowing only local pure Italian breeds. Fraud investigations are ongoing.

This study was carried out on two species of unroasted (green) coffee beans: Arabica (Coffea arabica) from Colombia and Nepal and Robusta (Coffea canephora) from Uganda and Vietnam. The tests were performed using an "electronic nose" consisting of two gas chromatography with sensitive flame ionisation detectors in parallel on stored green coffee beans. Using principle component analysis, it was possible to determine the geographical origin of green beans from the four countries.

Read the full paper at: Aroma profiles for geographic origin of green coffee beans

The U.S. Pharmacopeia has led an international collaborative project to develop a tool-box of screening methods and reference standards for the detection of milk powder adulteration. When adulterated milk powder reference standards were being prepared, it was discovered that the blending methods used to combine melamine and milk had unanticipated strong effects on the NIR spectrum of melamine.The prominent absorbance band at 1468 nm of melamine was retained when it was dry-blended with skim milk powder, but disappeared in wet-blended mixtures, where spray dried milk powder samples were prepared from solution. Using an array of other spectroscopic techniques, it was discovered that wet-blending promoted reversible and early Maillard reactions with lactose that are responsible for differences in melamine NIR spectra between wet- and dry-blended samples. Reliance on NIR detection of melamine using dry blended reference samples should be treated with caution.

Read the abstract at: NIR detection of melamine in milk powder

"EU-China-Safe" is a new EU Horizon 2020 project in collaboration with the Chinese Ministry of Science and Technology worth €10m.  The Institute for Global Food Security at Queen’s University Belfast, Northern Ireland, will lead the project, one of world’s largest food safety projects. The aim of the project is to reduce food fraud and improve food safety through focusing on improving food legislation, food inspection and increasing access to information across both continents. The project has 33 partners, including 15 in the EU and 18 in China, who are key players in the food industry, research organisations and governments across two of the world’s largest trading blocks.

Read the Press Release: EU-China-Safe Project

Reported instances of food fraud are on the increase, and worth an estimated €47bn globally each year. That is more than the heroin trade (€27bn) and illegal firearms game (€7.6bn) put together. This news introduces the two day conference Food Integrity 2017 to be held on 28 and 29 June in the Crown Plaza Hotel, Auckland , New Zealand. 

Read the articles at:Global estimate of food fraud and nachos or narcos

Researchers applying a multi-step approach using HPLC, UV–Vis, FT-IR and NMR analyses, uncovered a new type of adulteration of a commercial product labelled as “saffron”, and sold packed in powder form in a major consuming country.  Applying the four methods and NMR data from in-house databases, they uncovered a  “tailor-made” case of 100% substitution of saffron by a mixture of exogenous chemical compounds in such a way that the commercial product would approximately mimic not only the appearance of saffron but also its UV–Vis spectrum and specific absorbance values. The findings indicated a sophisticated practice, including total substitution of saffron constituents by tartrazine and sunset yellow along with propane-1,2-diol, propan-2-ol and acylglycerols, probably as emulsifier agents. 

Read the abstract at: Multi-step approach uncovers saffron fraud

A coordinated research project, run in cooperation with the FAO, brings together scientists from 13 countries to explore opportunities created by advances in field-deployable analytical equipment.  The development of high performance hand-held computing devices, such as smart phones, has enabled a new generation of instruments that can be used outside the traditional laboratory environment. Ion mobility spectrometry, a nuclear-based technology used by border police in the detection of illicit drugs and explosives, is one of such method that could be adapted to perform point-of-use screening tests to check for adulterants, contaminants and mould in food. Participating countries are Austria, Belgium, China, India, Malaysia, Morocco, Russian Federation, Singapore, Sri Lanka, Sweden, United Kingdom, Uganda and the United States. The project kicked off with a meeting in Vienna in May, and first results are expected within the next two years.

Read IEAE's Press Release at: IAEA Portable Instrument Project 

To meet growing consumer demands, our food chain has become global, dynamic, heterogeneous, and more complex in nature. Foods once considered exotic or seasonal are now available year-round in developed markets. Consumer demands extend to food products that have credence claims such as sustainably sourced, fair-trade, non-GMO, organic, vegan, vegetarian, and more. But how can consumers verify these credence claims and be protected from food fraud? The need for greater supply chain transparency to increase consumer trust in safe, nutritious and authentic foods has never been more profound. Yet, globalisation of the supply chain is not the primary reason for food fraud, which exists within sovereign nations and may be rampant within free trade zones. The question is whether current laws and regulations are adequate to protect consumers, or whether they create an environment of “blind trust” where food fraud can flourish.

Read full article

INTELLItrace is one of the new projects commissioned in the Euro 12 million EU Project FoodIntegrity. It was discussed at the FoodIntegrity Conference in Parma 10-11 May. The lead partner in WP18 is University of Piemonte Orientale, and the other partners are Thermo Fisher Scientific, ICETA (PT), Mérieux NutriSciences,  University of Stuttgart, and  Istituto delle Scienze delle Preparazioni Alimentari (ISPA)

 The main objective of this project is the development and validation of a comprehensive supervised or unsupervised protocol, that could be used to exhaustively process large data sets originated from untargeted analyses.This will hopefully contribute to the development of early warning capabilities.

Read the full article at: INTELLItrace

A 36 million lbs shipment of "ordinary" soybeans sailed late last year in a cargo ship from Ukraine to Turkey to California. By the time the ship docked in Stockton, California in December, the soybeans had been labelled “organic,” according to receipts, invoices and other shipping records obtained by the Washington Post. That switch — the addition of the “USDA Organic” designation — boosted their value by approximately US$ 4 million, creating a windfall for at least one company in the supply chain. Two other shipments consisting of millions of lbs of maize was discovered to have undone the same mysterious transformation. They found that the Romanian company that provided the maize is not certified organic, and originally purchased the maize from a supplier – also not certified organic. All three shipment originated from Turkey, and USDA officials are investigating the companies involved in the shipments. The soya and maize involved was destined for the organic meat, milk and chicken production sectors as animal feed.

Read the full article at: US imported organic soya and maize fraud

A Spanish company in Burgos producing burgers, meat balls and other meat products is alleged to have produced low quality products that were incorrectly labelled as containing a higher proportion of beef. The beefburgers contained much less beef than was declared, and the difference being made up with pork, rusk (breadcrumbs), fat and soya. The fraud is thought to go back to 2002, and 14 people have been charged.

Read the article at: Meat fraud in Spain

Two e-seminars have been added to the website under "Training". The training seminars cover the theoretical and practical aspects DNA extraction and DNA sequencing, and are designed to serve as a training course for analysts.

Operation OPSON VI is a joint Europol-INTERPOL operation targeting counterfeit and substandard food and drink, as well as the organised crime networks behind this illicit trade. This year, 61 countries (21 EU Member States) took part in operation OPSON VI, which was carried out for the sixth time in a row and saw an increase in participating countries (57 countries in 2016). Each participating country implemented a national operational phase between 1 December 2016 to 31 March 2017, involving police, customs, national food regulatory bodies and partners from the private sector. More than 50,000 checks were carried out at shops, markets, airports, seaports and industrial estates. 230 million Euros of fake food and beverages were seized during OPSON VI, and the full report will be released in the next months.

Read the Press Release at: OPSON VI