Iran produces around 90% of the global saffron trade, but this is running into difficulties because of EU/US sanctions, adulteration and the loss of traditional trading routes. This news article describes the Iranian saffron trade, the problems it is now facing, as well as previous investigations into adulterated saffron.
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In this article, applications of several analytical techniques such as DNA-based techniques, spectrometric techniques, spectroscopic techniques, chromatographic techniques, lateral flow immunoassays, and neutron and proton based nuclear analytical techniques for forensic food analysis are discussed. These techniques are capable of analysing food samples rapidly, and permit the identification of authenticity markers, which are essential in uncovering food fraud. In addition, authenticity analyses of dyes in food, seafood, plant-based food, beverages, and forensic analysis of postmortem viscera are reviewed.
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Seven meat companies have been investigated by the Guardia Civil in 5 areas of Spain. The investigation began after an inspection of a food shop revealed anomolies mainly in the labelling of Iberian ham, some of which was not fit for human consumption. After widening the investigation, some 29,000 meat products, including 19,600 Iberian hams, and ham shoulders, with a total value over Euros 1 million were impounded by the Guardia Civil.
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Organic crop production is a system requirement covering many aspects of its production. One main feature, which distinguishes organic from conventional production is the prohibition on the use of synthetic fertilisers, which are produced from atmospheric nitrogen by the Haber process, and the resulting nitrate is high in 18O and low in 15N. Isotopic measurement of nitrate extracted from plant foods can indicate which fertilisation system has been used. This requires a bacterial reduction, which is costly and can only be done by specialised laboratories. Research scientists at IAEA have developed a rapid, low-cost method to measure N and O isotope ratios using a one-step Ti(III) reduction to convert the nitrate to N2O gas for headspace isotope analysis using IRMA (isotope-ratio mass spectrometry). The new method was developed and tested using organic and conventionally grown Spanish strawberries, where the extractable nitrate N and O isotope ratios and the chemical composition were measured followed by chemometric analysis, and which revealed that the δ18O of nitrate along with δ15N and Ca2+ fully differentiated organic from conventional strawberry production.
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Basmati rice is the largest selling type of rice on the UK market because it is valued for its aroma and cooking properties. Although the geographic origin of Basmati is protected, the definition of Basmati is not protected in law in the UK, and its protection has been achieved through an industry and enforcement authority Code of Practice. When the first Code was published in 2005, there were 15 rice varieties mainly landrace varieties, which could be labelled as Basmati. A DNA assay using single sequence repeats (SSRs or microsatellites) was developed to authenticate Basmati varieties and distinguish them from non-Basmati rice on a qualitative and quantitative basis. However, since 2005 both India and Pakistan have been plant breeding Basmati for disease resistance, salt tolerance and better yield such that the Code of Practice was amended to include an extra 25 varieties of Basmati rice in 2017. As the genetic diversity of these new varieties is greater than the original set of Basmati varieties, the SSR assay originally developed could no longer be used, and a project was commissioned to develop a more appropriate set of DNA markers.
Using the results of a previous project to select markers from new information from whole genome sequencing of Basmati and non-Basmati varieties, a new approach using a PCR based genotyping technology called KASP (Kompetitive Alelle Specific PCR) was developed. A sub-set of 69 DNA KASP markers (out of an original 327) was successfully found to be able to distinguish between most of the 60 varieties tested, including some pairs of varieties that could not be distinguished using previous technique. The project has demonstrated that KASP assays are a feasible approach to distinguish between Basmati and non-Basmati varieties. The report suggests further work that would be needed to optimise and improve the reliability of the KASP assay technique (e.g. more replications and better samples of DNA to find more markers), this could then be used to design and develop a cost effective, fit for purpose method that can be applied by enforcement labs to verify labelling of Basmati rice.
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Information on the geographic origin of milk is important in determining quality attributes, and for economic gain through building brand value associated with origin. Stable isotope signatures and trace element concentrations are being increasingly used to authenticate milk, though information on the suitability of such technology to verify the agroclimatic origin in small continents with diverse climatic, environmental conditions, and animal management practice is scarce. The objective of this study was to investigate the possibility of using a stable isotope composition of C, N, O, and H and elemental fingerprints to determine the origin of milk produced in different agroclimatic zones of Sri Lanka.Stable isotopes ratios of C, N, H, and O, and elemental fingerprints of milk samples were determined by IRMS and ICP-MS, respectively. Significant variations were observed in stable isotope ratios, especially δ18O and the mean content of Li, Al, Cr, Mn, and Sr in the bulk milk samples obtained from different agroclimatic zones. A linear discriminant analysis differentiated cow milk produced from four agroclimatic zones based on stable isotope ratios, and the inclusion of elemental ratios enhanced the discriminating ability.
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The Joint Knowledge Transfer (KT) Framework Programme is a jointly funded cross-government (Defra/Food Standards Agency/Food Standards Scotland/Government Chemist) programme for knowledge transfer, aimed at:
•Creating better value for money by maximising resource use and delivering more sustainable and efficient approach to knowledge transfer
•Building analytical laboratory capability to respond to future food safety and fraud incidents
•Continuing to support delivery of the response to the 2014 Elliot review into the integrity and assurance of food supply networks following the 2013horse meat incident.
The report of the KT programme describes the activities undertaken during the first three-years, 2017 to 2020. The Deliverables of the programme included single day workshops, electronic seminars (e-seminars) and a set of work instructions as follows:
1. E-seminar on an introduction to designing quantitative PCR assays
2. E-seminar on an introduction to the digital polymerase chain reaction
3. E-seminar on DNA melting curve analysis
4. E-seminar on an introduction to quantitative PCR assay optimisation
5. E-seminar on Using service providers to undertake NGS analysis
6. E-seminar on an introduction to quantitative PCR assay validation
7. E-seminar on the Food allergens risk assessment, Part 1
8. E-seminar on an introduction to GMO detection
9. E-seminar on Fish speciation inclusive of the Label fish project
10. Workshop on an analytical roadmap for detecting allergens in spices
11. Workshop on the Evaluation and assessment of jelly mini-cups
The report is available here, and most of the above e-seminars and the workshop on allergens can be found by clicking the website Training tab.
This article by Indian researchers reviews the methods that have been published to authenticate muscle foods (meat, seafood and their products). As well as the well known approaches, such as SDS-PAGE gel-electrophoresis, mass spectrometry based proteomics and metabolomics, NMR, and other spectroscopic methods. The authors highlight other less well known approaches, such as different protein fractionation techniques, including OFFGEL ( pre-fractionatio of peptides into discrete liquid fractions) and GELFrEE (Gel-eluted liquid fraction entrapment) electrophoresis fractionation, two-dimensional gel electrophoresis, and the application of lateral flow assays for in-situ testing.
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For 2021, the Network's Executive Team have prepared a poster style Annual Summary of Network activities, which has been agreed by the Network's Advisory Board. The summary contains the progress in becoming a global network, including the activities of the Team and Chair of the Advisory Board in global standards organisations and national and international events. It summarises the new content put on the website in terms of news items and events. In other activities, a review of global food fraud definitions was undertaken and published on the website, and 3 new Centres of Expertise (CoE) have been added to the network of CoE laboratories.
You can download the Summary here
This article by Bruker BioSpin looks at the work of the Food Authenticity Network, and how it fits in with tackling the increasing problem of food fraud. It is taken from a webinar, at which Will Souter interviewed the Executive Team of the Network and Sterling Crew, the Chair of its Advisory Board. The article not only describes what the Network has to offer, but it looks at other organisations that have been set up to fight food crime.
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Russian scientists have developed a rapid test for chicken and pork in processed meat products, which takes 33 minutes to complete and can be done in-situ without the need of laboratory equipment. The test consists of a 3 min of crude DNA extraction, 20 min of recombinase polymerase amplification (RPA) at 39 °C, and 10 min of lateral flow assay (LFA) detection. The RPA–LFA assay is based on designed fluorescein and biotin-labelled primers developed from the cytochrome B gene, which can identify as little as 0.001% w/w of the target meat component. The assay was tested on processed meat products and to meat after heating, and the results were confirmed by real-time PCR.
You can read the full open access paper here
The European Commission's Joint Research Centre (JRC) has published its December 2021 Food Fraud Summary reporting food fraud incidents and investigations from around the world. These have been kindly represented as an infographic above by our Member Bruno Séchet, and thanks for allowing us to share it with the rest of the Network.
In addition to the large number of fraud incidents shown above, there are references to articles on Egypts efforts to stop bovine animals and milk smuggling, and a study on the illegal beverage market in Colombia.
You can download the full summary here
This research provides validated methods for specific food adulteration scenarios, guidance on general MSI validation, and recommendations on technology transfer and feasibility of developing additional MSI related resources (e.g. an MSI database). The project builds on a previous FSA (Food Standards Agency) project, which demonstrated proof-of-principle on the applicability of MSI as a rapid, multi-analyte, non-targeted and non-invasive screening approach for food and feed analysis. In this project, 5 validated methods were successfully developed: adulteration in oregano, presence of offal in meat, ground peanut in ground almond, presence of pork in beef products, and presence of almond in commercial paprika samples, where the application, scope and key performance characteristics were captured for each application. A sixth single fully validated method for determination of multiple fish species was not successful, thought mainly due to the broad scope of the method and associated data used to build the models. The report also identifies six further areas of work that can give greater applicability of imaging technology to food and feed analysis.
The report is available here.
Food fraud, food adulteration, food crime, food integrity, food authenticity and food counterfeiting are all commonly applied terms to a problem that has existed since the commercialisation of food. Defra (Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs), FSA (Food Standards Agenc)y and FSS (Food Standards Scotland) commissioned the Food Authenticity Network, via LGC, to undertake an examination of published literature to identify the major definitions related to food fraud and global standardisation activities in this area (with a focus on terminology and testing methods).
The project has identified:
You can read the report here, and it will be added to the Research section of the website
This project was built on earlier projects to develop a real-time qPCR assay for the quantification of horsemeat and pork adulteration in processed beef matrices.It had as its objectives to conduct an intra-laboratory validation, followed by an inter-laboratory (collaborative) validation of the horse-in-beef and pork-in-beef qPCR assays. These were successfully carried out and a draft SOP produced.
The project report is available here, and both the report and SOP will be available in the Research and Methods section of the website in the near-future.
This article outlines some of the food fraud incidents in Ghana in particular, and West Africa. These include the addition of Sudan IV to crude palm oil (a popular cooking oil in W. Africa), meat and fish treated with formaldehyde to falsify its freshness, rice chaff packaged as high-grade rice, and milk powder with no trace of milk in it. It appears that fraud is on the increase in W Afica.
To combat this an Africa Centre for Food Fraud and Safety (AfriFoodinTegrity) has been established by University of Cape Coast, Ghana and collaborates with IGFS-QUB (Queens University Belfast). Rapid, onsite and non‑destructive fingerprinting tests have been developed for palm oil quality and rice.
Research is being conducted into new methods to assess palm oil safety and quality, to authenticate the origin of cocoa beans using handheld near infrared (NIR) spectrometers, to determine egg freshness using spectral fingerprinting, and to classify cocoa bean quality using portable NIR spectroscopy.
Read the article here (after registering as a guest of account holder).
Fake wines and spirits costs the global drinks industry Euros 2.7bn in sales across the EU according to figures from the European Intellectual Property Office (EUIPO). Food Standards Scotland -Food Crime and Incidents Unit have warned that there is a large scale national trade in counterfeit drinks, which targets the low to medium priced market leading brands of vodka and wine. This trade damages legitimate beverage businesses and retailers, and is often linked to organised crime outside of Scotland. In addition, counterfeit spirits may also present a risk to health.
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Meat adulteration/substitution has long been a source of concern for a variety of reasons, including public health, religious considerations, wholesomeness, unhealthy competitiveness in the meat industry, and fraud. Therefore, a range of kits have been developed to permit rapid, precise, and specific identification of meat species. These are based on DNA methods (PCR and Real-Time PCR) and Enzyme-Linked Immunosorbent Assay (ELISA). In response to these developments, Advance Market Analytics has published a new research publication on “Global Meat Species Identification Kits Market Insights, to 2026”.
The report has 9 chapters:
Chapter 1: Introduction, market driving force product Objective of Study and Research Scope the Meat Species Identification Kits market
Chapter 2: Exclusive Summary – the basic information of the Meat Species Identification Kits Market.
Chapter 3: Displaying the Market Dynamics- Drivers, Trends and Challenges & Opportunities of the Meat Species Identification Kits
Chapter 4: Presenting the Meat Species Identification Kits Market Factor Analysis, Porters Five Forces, Supply/Value Chain, PESTEL analysis, Market Entropy, Patent/Trademark Analysis.
Chapter 5: Displaying the by Type, End User and Region/Country 2015-2020
Chapter 6: Evaluating the leading manufacturers of the Meat Species Identification Kits market which consists of its Competitive Landscape, Peer Group Analysis, BCG Matrix & Company Profile
Chapter 7: To evaluate the market by segments, by countries and by Manufacturers/Company with revenue share and sales by key countries in these various regions (2021-2026)
Chapter 8 & 9: Displaying the Appendix, Methodology and Data Source
A free example copy of the report can be obtained.
Measures to monitor meat substitution are in place in many developed countries, however, information about similar efforts in sub-Saharan Africa is sparse. Kenyan researchers have developed a PCR-HRM (High Resolution Melting) analysis targeting three mitochondrial genes—cytochrome oxidase 1 (CO1), cytochrome b (cyt b), and 16S rRNA, to detect 7 species ( goat, sheep, bovines, pig, camel, rabbit and chicken) of commercially traded meat in Kenya. One hundred and seven meat samples (whole pieces) were collected from randomly selected stalls in Nairobi’s major meat wholesale market (Burma market) and butcheries in the 10 surrounding districts. Out of the 107 samples, 11 (10.3%) had been substituted, with the highest rate being observed in samples sold as goat (7 out of 30 samples). The PCR-HRM assay worked with fresh, dried, heated and decomposed meat, as well as admixtures of the different species. and is regarded as a robust and reliable assay for meat species.
Read the full open-access paper here
