The EU Intellectual Property Office (EUIPO) has assessed the counterfeiting losses for the wine and spirits sector, which was in the top five sectors for lost sales. The overall losses due to counterfeiting for 13 sectors amounts to Euros 60bn, corresponding to 7.5% of sales, and probably resulting in 434,00 less jobs because of reduced sales.
Read the article here
U.S. labelling laws require that only species of the family Ictaluridae can be marketed as catfish. The lower production price of Pangasiidae, combined with changes in regulations over time, have resulted in high potential for species substitution and country of origin mislabelling among catfish products. The objective of this study was to conduct a market survey of catfish products sold at the U.S. retail level to examine species mislabelling and compliance with Country of Origin Labelling (COOL) regulations. A total of 80 catfish samples were collected from restaurants, grocery stores and fish markets in Orange County, CA. DNA was extracted from each sample and tested with a real-time PCR Kit for Ictaluridae spp. Samples that tested negative for Ictaluridae were tested with real-time PCR Kit for Pangasiidae spp. DNA barcoding was used as a final test in cases where species could not be identified with either of the real-time PCR assays. Overall, 7 of the 80 (9%) catfish products were found to be substituted with Pangasiidae species, these were attributed to 5 of the 40 restaurant samples and 2 of the 32 grocery store samples. In addition, 59% of grocery store samples were not compliant with COOL regulations.
Read the abstract here
EU Regulation No. 1379/2013 states clearly that “the commercial designation of the species and its scientific name” must be shown whenever a fish sold along with its production method (wild or farmed) and where caught or raised. Fish traders in the port of Marseille were fined by Government fish inspectors sums varying from Euros 450 -1500 for not displaying all of this information including the scientific name.
However, the Mayor of Marseille related this occurrence to President Macron during a lunch with him last week. The President laughed and promised that the fines would not have to paid nor would the traders need to use the scientific (latin) names.
Read the article here
Researchers at the University of Nebraska carried out an interesting robust study to examine how information about food fraud incidents affects consumers’ valuation of products. Specifically, the study examined:
- changes in consumers’ valuation of extra virgin olive oil (EVOO) after they received information about food fraud,
- how information about food fraud attributable to one country affects valuation for products from other countries, and
- how information about food fraud affects the valuation of olive oils in different price segments.
Read the article at: consumer EVOO study
Chinese researchers have developed a very rapid (30 mins) DNA test that can detect multiple meat species including duck, chicken, cow, sheep and pig, which is easier, and requires less equipment than other techniques. The method is based on recombinase polymerase amplification (RPA) – a rapid alternative to PCR developed by UK biotech TwistDx Ltd combined with the nucleic acid stain SYBR green I produced by Life Technologies’ Molecular Probes subsidiary to visualise the results, and is carried out in a water bath at 37 degrees C. The method was able to detect 1 per cent pork adulteration in mutton or beef, and could also differentiate species in boiled, microwaved, pressure-cooked or fried meat samples.
Read the article at: rapid DNA test for meat species
A new early warning system for fraud has been developed by Fera as part of the EU FoodIntegrity project. Vahid Mojtahed, Fera, gave a presentation on the new system at the ASSET 2018 Summit of Global Food Integrity, in Belfast, 28-31 May. The system takes data from the JRC European Media Monitoring system, which collects information on food fraud in 60 different languages from media and medical sources. The data is fed through a Bayesian network to compute the probabilities of food fraud developing in the supply chain. Mojtahed said that " with respect to adulteration and substitution of the main food categories, the system can detect anomalies 92% of the time in the active food supply chain 3-6 months before a fraud incident".
Read the article at: fraud early warning system
Manuka honey is high value food because of its anti-bacterial properties, and hence it is often open to adulteration. New Zealand researchers have developed a new method based on using 4 chemical and 2 DNA markers that can authenticate monofloral and multifloral NZ Manuka honey and distinguish then from non-Manuka honey, Australian Manuka honey and honey from Leptospermum spp.
Read the full paper here
As part of the EU Project FoodIntegrity, Newcastle University carried out an in-depth consumer study with Chinese consumers on their attitude to food fraud and food safety following some high profile incidents. The results show that these incidents, which involved fatalities, have resulted in a lack of trust in the authenticity and safety of food produced in China. Many Chinese consumers now have an increased trust in imported foods from Europe and regard them as better quality and safer than their Chinese counterparts, although there are regional variations. However, it gives European food exporters the opportunity to capitalise on these concerns, and also know that Chinese consumers are willing to pay more for those products with indications and safeguards of authenticity.
Read the article summarising the results and the full journal paper.
The US Center for Science in the Public Interest (CSPI) is urging consumers to avoid supplements made with ginkgo biloba, which are often adulterated and have largely been shown to be ineffective in preventing dementia and improving circulation. The CSPI sent 10 samples for analysis, and 6 of these had far less ginkgo than advertised or showed evidence of having been adulterated with cheaper plant material. CSPI have written to the FDA to take action on gingo supplements. There is also other evidence, that up to 70% of gingo supplements on the US market are adulterated because the leaves of the ginkgo tree are expensive, and a large quantity of leaves is needed to produce ginkgo extracts.. The adulteration is quite sophisticated consisting of using flavonol rich plant materials such as the Japanese pagoda tree and buckwheat extracts to arrive at the pharmacopeial standard of 24% flavonol glycosides and 6% diterpene lactones.
Read CSPI's Press Release and associated article
Fruit content and fruit authenticity are crucial to informing the consumer about the quality and authenticity of jam. However, jam is one of the most difficult products to extract undegraded DNA that can be amplified from the fruit ingredients being an acid high sugar product. Czech researchers have tested three extraction methods - two commercial kits and the CTAB method on 14 different jams to find which one produced the most well-amplifiable DNA.
Read the full article at: DNA extraction of jam
JRC (the European Commission's Joint Research Centre) has published its latest April 2018 summary of articles about food fraud and adulteration from around the world. In this month's summary, there are 13 articles including 2 major incidents of fraud. One was by wine producers in Medoc region adding sugar to the grape must to boost alcohol content in 2016. The other was the use of Danish Duroc boars to produce the pigs to make the PDO Prosciutto di Parma and San Daniele, where only Italian breeds are allowed. Production of these two products has been suspended for 6 months.
Read the April summary here
Blockchain technology has the potential to transform the food industry and provide a new way of dealing with food safety and food fraud. This article by Sterling Crew is taken from his article in March edition of Food Science and Technology (free on line for IFST members). It examines its application to enhance transparency, tracking and traceability in the food supply chain, and considers how it could help to build consumer confidence and give a more secure food supply system.
Read the article here
Small amounts of low cost carob flour do not change the colour, aroma or taste characteristics of cocoa powder. Therefore, Spanish researchers have developed a NIR (near infra-red) method combined with chemometrics to determine that adulteration with carob flour has taken place, and the amount of carob flour that has been used. Data sets using cocoa powders with different alkalisation levels, carob flours with three different roasting degrees, and adulterated samples prepared by blending cocoa powders with carob flour at several proportions, were obtained. For qualitative results, a principal component analysis (PCA) and a partial least squares discriminant analysis (PLS-DA) were used, giving a 100% classification accuracy to distinguish pure cocoa powders from adulterated samples. For quantitative analysis, a partial least squares (PLS) regression analysis was performed giving a root mean square error of prediction of 3.2%, thus making the method fit for purpose for determining the amount of carob flour in cocoa powder within this error.
Read the abstract at: cocoa powder adulteration with carob flour
The number of cases of food fraud has increased in Sweden in recent years. Last year, the Swedish Food Administration reported about 100 cases of food fraud just in Sweden, and the number is rising. Violation of food law only imposes fines and is low priority. The risk of getting caught is therefore minimal, and the profits are greater than any fines. The Swedish government is proposing a change in the law so that serious crimes with food, feed and animal by-products should be punished with imprisonment for up to two years. In the case of minor administrative crimes, fines of up to 100,000 Swedish kronor may be imposed.
Read the article at: Increase in Penalties in Sweden
Despite some technical issues with the link, the 8th April 2018 Newsletter is now available to read. There is a discussion about the future of the Network and three interesting articles:
The Newsletter can be downloaded at: April 2018 Newsletter
JRC has published its monthly summary article on food fraud and adulteration for March 2018. There are 23 articles on food fraud from around the world, as well as 6 articles of more general interest on developments in tackling food fraud.
Read the March 2018 Monthly Report
The annual operation coordinated by Europol and INTERPOL is supported by customs, police and national food regulatory bodies in addition to partners from the private sector. Since its first edition in 2011, the number of countries taking part in OPSON has grown every year, reflecting the growing commitment to tackle this issue. Figures from the latest haul in the joint Europol-INTERPOL investigation into counterfeit and substandard food has revealed how prevalent crime remains within the worldwide food system. Run over the course of four months (December 2017 – March 2018) across 67 countries, OPSON VII resulted in the total seizure of more than 3,620 tonnes and 9.7 million litres of either counterfeit or substandard food and beverages as a result of over 41 000 checks carried out at shops, markets, airports, seaports and industrial estates. In total, some 749 people were arrested or detained with investigations continuing in many countries.
In Europe, the close cooperation established between Europol and the EU Commission coordinating the EU Food Fraud Network led to the implementation of a specific project targeting the fraudulent trade of tuna. A comprehensive approach involving all stakeholders allowed the phenomenon to be tackled in an innovative and more effective manner via the simultaneous use of administrative and criminal enforcement tools. Europol will continue to support this multiagency approach in the upcoming editions of OPSON.
Other case studies investigated were: the sale of rotten meat in Belgium, fake baby milk powder in Spain, smuggling of perishable goods in France.
Read the Europol Press Release at: Opson VII April Results
Read the European Commission's Note on the Tuna Investigation
In this scientific opinion, many aspects relating to the role of non-targeted spectroscopy based methods for food fraud detection are considered: (i) a review of the current non-targeted spectroscopic methods to include the general differences with targeted techniques; (ii) overview of in-house validation procedures including samples, data processing and chemometric techniques with a view to recommending a harmonised procedure; (iii) quality assessments including QC samples, ring trials and reference materials; (iv) use of “big data” including recording, validation, sharing and joint usage of databases. The spectroscopic methods considered are traditional vibrational spectroscopy, hyperspectral imaging and NMR. Conclusions of this opinion indicate that the key challenges faced by the research and routine testing communities include: a lack of guidelines and legislation governing both the development and validation of non-targeted methodologies, no common definition of terms, difficulty in obtaining authentic samples with full traceability for model building; the lack of a single chemometric modelling software that offers all the algorithms required by developers.
Read the full paper at: scientific opinion on non-targeted methods
This paper presents an overview of the state of the art regarding the employment of IR spectroscopy in conjunction with chemometric techniques for the discrimination of different foodstuffs (such as fruits, nuts, vegetables, edible plants, grains, cereals, and vegetable oils) and beverages (such as wines, juices, and other alcoholic drinks) according to their cultivar.
Read the abstract at: IR varietal discrimination
The Caribbean Red Snapper (Pargo) Lutjanus purpureus is the most economically important snapper in Brazil, which is sold, among other forms, as frozen fillets. 142 samples were collected between March 2013 to October 2014 from supermarkets in the State of Pará, North Brazil, which were processed by a single supplier. These were analysed using a DNA method, which sequenced a 600-bp fragment corresponding to the barcode portion of COI gene to identify the fillets, with the aid of sequences from the public and control databases. Only L. purpureus and L. campechanus can be denominated “Pargo” in Brazil, but the results found that 22% of the samples were Rhomboplites aurorubens, a snapper with low commercial value in the country, revealing commercial fraud.
Read the full paper at: Caribbean red snapper substitution
