Just in case you did not receive a link to the November Newsletter in an earlier e-mail, here it is. If anyone would like a particular subject covered in the next Newsletter please let me know.
Newsletter at: FOODAUTHENTICITY November Newsletter
All Posts (1480)
Sort by
Investigators at Food Standards Scotland’s (FSS) new food crime unit say they have information that inferior beef from Eastern Europe, Ireland and England is being imported and repackaged with a premium Scottish label. FSS say the investigation is into more than one meat plant.
Read the full article at: Scottish Beef Origin Investigation
Regulation (EC) No 882/2004 on official controls of compliance with feed and food law, animal health and animal welfare rules, is under review. Political agreement on a recent draft of 26 September 2016 has been reached, and it should be voted upon by the end of the year and adopted in early 2017. The amended scope of the Regulation and official controls now includes the possible violation of the rules perpetrated through fraudulent or deceptive practices i.e. food fraud. The risk of this occurring should be taken into account by competent authorities when organising and prioritising their national official controls, as well as controls on imported foods. Fraudulent or deceptive practices committed with respect to the marketing standards referred to in Articles 73 to 91 of Regulation (EU) No 1308/2013 are included as well.
Read the full article at: Fraud Amendment on Food and Feed Controls
Molecular markers provide information on genetic variations and are valuable tools to determine olive oil authenticity. Molecular markers such as SNPs, microsatellites, SCARs and AFLPs have been used for the identification of the varietal origin of olive oils. This paper provides an overview of the current trends and critical issues on DNA-targeted approaches used for traceability and authenticity of olive oil.
Read the abstract at: Review of DNA Methods for Olive Oil Authenticity
The International Union of Food Science and Technology (IUFoST) has released its latest Scientific Information Bulletin (SIB), which addresses the evolving food industry focus on Food Fraud. The purpose of this IUFoST SIB is to provide an introduction to the issue, a review of incidents, the fundamentals of prevention and insights into the optimal role of food science and technology. The SIB was drafted by John Spink at Michigan State University.
News of the SIB, and a link to download it free is at: IUFOST SIB on food fraud
At a Inner London Court hearing on 26 October, 3 men have been charged with fraud offences of conspiring to sell horsemeat as beef between January and October 2012. Two of the men have pleaded guilty, and will be sentenced after the hearing. The third pleaded not guilty, and will face trial.
Read more about case at:
http://www.foodmanufacture.co.uk/Regulation/Two-plead-guilty-to-conspiracy-in-horsemeat-fraud-scandal?utm_source=newsletter_daily&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=28-Oct-2016&c=5Od9IP%2BSSg1236v1AjSvfmIdMHbfHptl&p2=
Researchers at the University of Southampton have derived carbon and nitrogen stable isotopic isoscapes using jellyfish from different locations around the North Sea. These were applied to scallops and herring, enabling 75% of scallops origin to be confirmed within an error of 10 sq.km.
It was also possible to assign location of migratory fish such as herring with the isoscapes, but with some reduced accuracy. The isotopic method compares favourably with other methods used to determine location of seafood in the North Sea.
Read the full paper at: http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/2041-210X.12651/full
IFR has developed a rapid multiple reaction monitoring mass spectrometry method for the detection and relative quantitation of the adulteration of meat with that of an undeclared species is presented. Selected peptide markers derived from myoglobin can be used for species detection, and the ratios of transition peak areas for corresponding peptides is proposed for relative quantitation. The method has been developed from the myoglobin of four meat species - beef, pork, horse and lamb, and test results are encouraging.
Read the full research paper at: http://pubs.acs.org/doi/10.1021/acs.analchem.5b02318
or read a summary article at: http://www.foodqualitynews.com/R-D/Researchers-target-myoglobin-protein-to-stop-food-fraud
Research by the Dutch Consumers' Association (Consumentenbond) shows that three years after the horse meat affair are still many problems with the authenticity of foodstuffs. The Consumentenbond investigated over 150 sensitive products, and 21% of them were not how they were described. The samples were analysed using the most up to date methods.
The study found problems with the following percentage of samples taken: manuka honey (50% ), lamb (47%), extra virgin olive oil (31% ), oregano (11% ) and cod (3%).
In the lamb products study, 10 lamb curries, 10 servings of minced lamb and 10 lamb shawarma or kebabs were purchased. 14 of the 30 lamb samples turned out not to be pure lamb. In 6 samples, there was no lamb found at all, only beef or turkey instead. In 8 other samples there was some lamb, but also at least 40% of other meat.
The report in Dutch can be found at: http://www.consumentenbond.nl/nieuws/2016/gesjoemel-met-voedsel-hardnekkig-probleem
A summary of the article in English can be found at:
http://www.foodqualitynews.com/Industry-news/Authenticity-deviations-found-in-1-in-5-Dutch-food-samples
Food Quality News has published an article that highlights the cases referred to the Government Chemist in 2015 which included novel investigations, familiar issues and re-emerging questions. The most challenging investigations involved alleged allergens in spices, for which the GC had to develop completely new methods of analysis. Familiar issues included aflatoxins, naturally occurring cancer causing contaminants; and there were also issues to resolve relating to pesticides residues, food authenticity, and residues of veterinary medicines. Two issues resurfaced after gaps of several years; illegal dyes and the choking hazards of jelly mini-cups.
Focus on food authenticity remained high in 2015. The FSA funded 2014-15 National Sampling Programme included an additional element of local authority testing of lamb dishes from takeaway restaurants for meat speciation (and where appropriate for allergens and additives). There were over 60 samples considered to be non-compliant when sampled by a local authority from the restaurant and its suppliers which needed following up.
The Public Analyst reported one lamb sample as satisfactory, however a product described as goat meat was reported to contain only sheep DNA. Moreover the Public Analyst also reported a minced lamb product with a substantial amount of chicken DNA, a “cooked lamb curry” with only beef DNA and a sample described as “cooked minced lamb” was found to contain chicken DNA as well as sheep DNA. Proceedings were instigated in the Magistrate’s Court and the defendant supplier entered a ‘not guilty’ plea. Anticipating a possible analytical defence the local authority requested a referee analysis of the retained portions of the samples.
The GC applied both ELISA (to check the protein) and real time PCR (to identify cell nucleus DNA) to multiple replicates of the samples. The “cooked lamb curry”, consisted of seven pieces of cooked meat and some sauce. The GC tested multiple replicates of each piece of meat (and the sauce) individually and showed that the meat was beef and not sheep meat. The “goat meat”, also consisted of seven pieces of raw meat and similar detailed analysis confirmed that the meat was sheep and not goat. The GC found the “cooked minced lamb” to consist of a mixture of chicken and sheep meat, and the “minced lamb”, consisted of a mixture of sheep and chicken meat.
Hence the GC upheld all of the Public Analyst’s findings and the defendant was found guilty and received a total penalty (fines and costs) of £7100.
Read full article and the Government Chemist Annual Review for 2015.
Research papers (20 in total) covering a wide range of MS food applications presented at the 4th MS Food Day, held in Italy in October 2015 have been published in a special issue of the J. of MS. The papers are freely available and can be downloaded.
The papers can be found at: http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1002/jms.v51.9/issuetoc
The European Commission has published a Consumer Market Scoreboard in September 2016, which scores consumer assessment of services and goods including food across the EU. Many foods such as non-alcoholic drinks, bread, cereals and pasta in fast moving markets have lost ground to other goods. The meat sector has still not recovered since 2013, and comes just above second hand car sales.
Read the report at: http://ec.europa.eu/consumers/consumer_evidence/consumer_scoreboards/12_edition/index_en.htm
The FFD 2.0 version can identify trends and risks using a custom dashboard, which will alert users to new food fraud incidents and track ingredients of concern. The result is meant to allow users to stay on top of the economically motivated adulteration of food products, wherever they may occur.
FFD 2.0 also contains incident reports, surveillance records and analytical methods gathered from scientific journals, media publications, regulatory records, judicial records and trade associations around the world in addition to thousands of ingredients and related adulterants.
The Sage Project is an initiative by designer and developer Sam Slover. The idea is to create food ingredient labels in the cloud, which can be accessed on the web or via a mobile app (the web version is now live and the mobile apps are coming soon, according to Slover). (You can listen to an interview with Slover here.)
Sage gets food information mainly from the manufacturers. Interestingly, Slover said companies were initially reluctant to provide the information but recently have been clamoring to do so. Separately, the food industry is reportedly discovering that unless food companies provide ingredient information, the public will seek it out from more reliable sources offering more transparency.
Sage lists food types (for example, "mandarin oranges") and food products (such as Theo Chocolate's Organic Fair Trade Orange (70%) Dark Chocolate Bar) in its nearly 20,000-item food database.
A Llanelli court gave a suspended sentence and a fine of £1080 to Carmelo Gale for the illegal sale of smokies (whole lamb carcases skin-on and blow-torched). Mr Gale had allowed an illegal slaughterhouse to be set up on his property, which had not been registered as a food business and produced food unfit for human consumption.
Read the article at:
http://www.southwales-eveningpost.co.uk/man-sentenced-for-selling-illegal-meat-and-smokies/story-29529224-detail/story.html
