Development and Application of a Database of Food Ingredient Fraud and Economically Motivated Adulteration from 1980 to 2010

Abstract

Food ingredient fraud and economically motivated adulteration are emerging risks, but a comprehensive compilation of information about known problematic ingredients and detection methods does not currently exist. The objectives of this research were to collect such information from publicly available articles in scholarly journals and general media, organize into a database, and review and analyze the data to identify trends. The results summarized are a database that will be published in the US Pharmacopeial Convention's Food Chemicals Codex, 8th edition, and includes 1305 records, including 1000 records with analytical methods collected from 677 references. Olive oil, milk, honey, and saffron were the most common targets for adulteration reported in scholarly journals, and potentially harmful issues identified include spices diluted with lead chromate and lead tetraoxide, substitution of Chinese star anise with toxic Japanese star anise, and melamine adulteration of high protein content foods. High-performance liquid chromatography and infrared spectroscopy were the most common analytical detection procedures, and chemometrics data analysis was used in a large number of reports. Future expansion of this database will include additional publically available articles published before 1980 and in other languages, as well as data outside the public domain. The authors recommend in-depth analyses of individual incidents.

Sensory intensity assessment of olive oils using an electronic tongue

“…The economic value of olive oils make this food product very prone to fraud, including mislabeling of olive oil commercial category, geographical or olive cultivar origin [3][4][5][6][7]. So, several gas-, liquid-and mass-spectrometry chromatography, DNA and spectroscopy based methods have been developed to assess olive oil quality and authenticity as well as to detect possible adulterations [3,5,6,[8][9][10][11][12][13][14][15][16].…”

Overview on Untargeted Methods to Combat Food Frauds: A Focus on Fishery Products

“…By definition, adulteration is a food product modification that results in a change of the identity and/or purity of the original ingredients, performed by substituting, diluting, or modifying them by physical or chemical means [6]. As an example, food can be adulterated by the introduction of an inert material or even of dangerous substances as such a practice can lead to an increase of the economic profits of the producer [45].…”

“…In the last 15 years, fraudulent events have occurred regularly, generating economic, ethical, safety, and socioreligious effects [45,46]. In this regard, Moore et al described in their paper a comprehensive compilation of information about food fraud ingredients into a database [6]. The authors analyzed scholarly journals, media, and other reports to obtain useful information to develop the database.…”

Detection of Raw Milk Adulterated with Cheese Whey by Ultrasound Method

“…Adulteration in milk with other dairy or non-dairy ingredients has become very common [1,2]. In fact, milk is one of the seven top foods that is adulterated at all levels of the production process, and this fact has been widely recorded [3]. Recently, in Brazil was reported that commercial ultra-high temperature milks available in the Brazilian market presented at least one adulterant, such as starch, chlorine, formaldehyde, hydrogen peroxide and urine [4].…”