Two Australian media companies instructed a law firm to investigate the Australian honey industry. Twenty eight samples were collected from the Australian retail market and sent to two European laboratories for analysis by both NMR and carbon isotope analysis. The results indicated that 12 out of the 28 samples were not pure honey.

The companies involved with the non-compliant samples have challenged the results indicating that the honey samples were blends of Australian honey with other countries' honey (mainly China), which the tests especially NMR might not recognise as pure honey. However, the Australian official test is based on carbon isotopic measurement, which would only detect adulteration with C4 sugars such as cane sugar or sugars derived from maize starch. NMR is able to detect adulteration from C3 sugars such as beet sugar or sugars derived from rice starch. The European laboratory QSI undertaking the  analyses has indicated that adulteration is becoming more sophisticated where a tailored blend of C3 sugars are being added honey to even avoid detection by NMR.

 Read the article here

Italian researchers have used carbon isotope ratio (δ¹³C) of caffeine in green and in the corresponding roasted coffee, evaluated with a omprehensive approach using as a second parameter, the δ¹³C value of the whole volatile fraction of the roasted coffee samples. The method is based on evaluating the effect of roasting on caffeine by using a gas chromatograph connected directly to the carbon isotope ratio mass spectrometry (GC-C-IRMS). The results are then evaluated based on a novel comprehensive isotopic data evaluation (CIDE) model demonstrating that regardless the effect of roasting and the different geographic origin, the coffee bean samples analysed can be discriminated based on their botanical origin and in particular whether they are arabica or robusta coffee.

Read the abstract here

Located in China's Heilongjiang province, Wuchang is known for its high quality Wuchang rice. However, over the past few years, there have been reports that packages delivered from the region were sometimes mixed with low grade rice. Ant Financial, an affiliate of e-commerce giant Alibaba, has announced a partnership with the municipal government of Wuchang to deploy a consortium blockchain for tracking the entire production process of locally grown rice in the province in an attempt to prevent counterfeit rice products entering the market. One of the  benefits of the introduced blockchain technology is that for the first time Wuchang rice has changed its long-distance distribution method for the whole country, shortening the original delivery time of 3-7 days to less than 2 days. 

 Read the article here

Oceana Canada has  conducted a study in 2017 and 2018  and collected 382 samples of snapper, sea bass, sole and other fish that other studies indicate are often substituted. The samples came from 177 retailers and restaurants in five Canadian cities, and were sent to the University of Guelph for DNA barcoding. The study found that 44% of the samples were mislabelled. In particular it found cheaper haddock and pollock substituted for cod; farmed salmon served up as wild salmon; and escolar (a fish banned in many countries because of its health risks) masquerading as butterfish or white tuna. In addition, every single sample of so-called “red snapper” tested was actually another species.

Read Oceana's Report here

There is a increasing use of High Resolution Mass Spectrometry non-targeted approaches to examine the authenticity of food. The diversity in experimental design/data handling in scientific literature makes evaluation of method performance challenging. Developing an appropriate model validation is therefore a crucial step to assess reliability for quantitative or confirmatory purposes. This review assesses the state of the art and proposes a harmonised workflow for all such applications. Additionally, global considerations on the applicability of these methods for legal challenges are provided.

Read the full review

Indian researchers have concluded that in order to be able to authenticate saffron and check its purity, no single test is appropriate. This study has  proposed cross validation using 3 tests based on microscopy, DNA barcoding and ISO3632 standards. The combined use of these three tests is novel and more effective compare to any single test. 36 commercial saffron samples were tesed using the multiple test approach and found that over 45% of samples tested were questionable, and first grade saffron is rare on the Indian market.

Read the abstract here

New cereal based foods, particularly pasta, bread and biscuits, made with mixed flours containing ancient wheat species and other cereals, have become popular in recent years. This calls for analytical methods able to determine the authenticity of these products. Discrimination among closely related plant species, particularly congeneric ones like Triticum spp, remains a challenging task. Italian researchers have utilised and optimised a relatively new DNA fingerprinting method based on tubulin-based polymorphism (TBP) and a new assay, TBP light, for the authentication of different wheat and farro species and other cereals, and tested these on a set of commercial foods. The assay has a sensitivity of 0.5–1% w/w in binary mixtures of durum wheat in einkorn or emmer flour and was able to authenticate the composition of test food sample and to detect possible adulteration.                                     

  Read the abstract here

Italian researchers have made a preliminary study to use non-targeted metabolomic profiles to distinguish between PDO and non-PDO Grana Padano cheeses. Using ultra-high-pressure liquid chromatography coupled to quadrupole time-of-flight mass spectrometer (UHPLC/QTOF-MS) followed by chemometrics, a range of chemical metabolites - lipids (fatty acids and their derivatives, phospholipids and monoacylglycerols), amino acids and oligopeptides, together with plant-derived compounds gave the highest discimination potential between the two groups of cheeses. It is postulated that the PDO production specification rules drive the biochemical processes involved in cheese making and ripening process in a distinct manner, thus leaving a defined chemical signature on the final product.

      Read the abstract here

Aroma properties of spices are related to their volatile organic compounds (VOCs), which can provide distinct analytical signatures. Dutch researchers have examined the similarity and diversity of VOC profiles of six common spices (black/white pepper, chili paprika, cinnamon, nutmeg and saffron). The key volatiles were identified by PTR-TOFMS (Proton Transfer Reaction - Time of Flight Mass Spectrometry). Twelve samples per spice were subjected to PTR-Quadrupole MS (PTR-QMS) and Principal Component Analysis to compare the groups and examine diversity. With PTR-TOFMS, 101 volatile compounds were identified across all samples by their mass and comparing them with literature data Some spices comprised key character aroma compounds, e.g. cinnamaldehyde in cinnamon. Saffron and chili paprika showed distinct volatile profiles. Overlap in terpenic compounds is shown for pepper, cinnamon and nutmeg. The PTR-QMS in combination with variables selection resulted in distinct PCA patterns for each spice, which could be valuable for future authenticity studies.

     Read the abstract here

. 

In 2016/7, the DGCCRF( France's anti-fraud Directorate) conducted a large-scale survey to verify the labelling and declaration of the origin of imported wines, particularly from Spain. These controls were carried out across France at producers, importers, traders and distributors premises. A total of 179 establishments were audited in 2016 and 564 in 2017, specifically on the subject of foreign wines. 22% of the establishments visited in 2016 and 15% of the establishments visited in 2017 had labelling non-conformities including deceptive or false information and incorrect origin. While most wines were correctly labelled, there were several cases investigated where 2 - 3.4 million litres of wine (equivalent to 4.6 million bottles) of Spanish wine was sold in bulk labelled as French.

    Read the DGCCRF summary (in French) and the BBC article here

Product DNA is a system of electronically recording up to 150 attributes about a product, which are verified by a third party, and entered into a "catalogue" so it can be checked at any point in the supply chain and even incorporated into retailers own data systems, as well as accessed by consumers. Thus it can assure product traceability along the entire supply chain, and having an agreed set of attributes allows much easier data sharing between manufacturers and retailers.

Retailers Tesco and Ocado have already signed up to this service, and Unilever.and  Nestlé are the latest companies to do so.

 Read the article here

The European Parliament have approved a report recommending that manufacturers of branded products can add a logo to inform consumer that the product has the same composition and quality across all of the EU. This is in response to concerns that some branded products are different in quality in some Eastern European MSs to the rest of the EU. The Food and Drink Europe (representing food manufacturers) have welcomed the report, but noted that there can be legitimate reasons for differences in branded products across MSs based on consumer preferences, sourcing of local ingredients and reformulation requirements.

  Read the article here

Russian researchers have published a method based on sugar profiles to determine wine authenticity. The glucose-fructose Iindex (GFI) and disaccharide content can be used as marker for wine from different grape varieties. The method can detect when extra grape must has been added before fermentation, as well as wines from arrested fermentation. For sweet wines the glycerol content has to be measured as well. 

  Read the full paper here

Russian researchers have published a paper on their development of proteomic and peptide identification to identify pork, beef , horse and poultry in meat produced after slaughter. The methodology development can identify peptides which occur in specific tissues or fluids associated with meat species. The researchers are planning the next stage of using the peptide information of the raw materials to identify species in meat products.

  Read the full paper here

This is a short article in the Grocer, where Chris Elliott reviews all the activities in the UK that are trying to reduce food fraud and food crime. 

   Read the  article here

Spain’s National Police and Civil Guard have seized hundreds of tons of expired jamón (ham) and other meat products that were about to be placed back in the market, and in some cases, they were already back on sale.In three separate raids conducted over the course of a few weeks, officers found that individuals and companies were apparently tampering with seals and labels to extend the shelf life of expired food products. 

     Read the article here

JRC's Knowledge Centre publishes a monthly summary on articles and news about food fraud and adulteration, and has just published its June 2018 Newsletter. The top stories cover: adulterated Verdicchio wine in Italy;false buffalo mozzarella cheese in Benelux supermarkets; and investigations into the French spice market revealed 51% of all samples subject to fraud with saffron being the highest number of fraudulent samples. 

Read the June 2018 summary here

Coffee is currently the second largest commodity on the world market. Brazilian researchers have written a comprehensive review on the development and use of chromatograpy from paper to gas and hplc, and finally ultra-performance liquid chromatography coupled with tandem mass spectrometry to confirm adulteration and fraud in coffee.  

 Read the full review here

US-based technology and content solutions provider Decernis has acquired the Food Fraud Database from USP. USP's Global Strategic Marketing and Programme senior vice-president Salah Kivlighn said: “We are very pleased to have found an appropriate home for the Food Fraud Database, which hundreds of companies depend on to help support their efforts to prevent food adulteration". USP will continue to provide critical resources to help the industry, along with regulators and other stakeholders, verify the identity, quality and purity of food ingredients. The database is updated continuously with ingredients and related records, which are gathered from scientific literature, media publications, regulatory reports, judicial records and trade associations worldwide.

Read the article here

Polish researchers have published a paper on the development of rapid, simple, and non-destructive analytical procedure for discrimination and authentication of whiskies originating from Scotland, Ireland and USA  as well as time of maturation (two, three, six and twelve years). Combination of data from Fourier Transform Infrared Spectroscopy (FTIR) with statistical analysis was used to construct eight discriminant models. The models obtained permitted whiskies from Scotland, Ireland, and USA to be distinguished from each other, and 2 and 3 years old beverages from 6 and 12 years old whiskies. Results show that 100% of samples were correctly classified in models discriminating American and Scottish whiskies or 2-year-old and 6-year-old American whiskies. American whiskies were classified correctly in all models, which may suggest its considerable chemical difference compared to whisky produced in Scotland or Ireland. 

  Read the full paper here