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Paw San rice, also known as “Myanmar pearl rice”, is considered the highest quality rice in Myanmar. Methods for its authentication are one of the worldwide research priorities for specific regional foods identified by the Joint FAO/IAEA Centre for Nuclear Techniques and these new methods (here – free link for 50 days) is one of the outputs of that programme.

Shwe Bo District is one of the most popular rice growing areas in the Sagaing region of Myanmar which produces the most valued and highly priced Paw San rice (Shwe Bo Paw San). The verification of the geographical origin of Paw San rice is not readily undertaken in the rice supply chain because the existing analytical approaches are time-consuming and expensive.

In this 4-year study, two rapid screening techniques, Fourier-transform near-infrared (FT-NIR) spectroscopy and headspace-gas chromatography-ion mobility spectrometry (HS-GC-IMS), coupled with chemometric modelling, were applied and compared for the regional differentiation of Paw San rice. In addition, low-level fusion of the FT-NIR and HS-GC-IMS data was performed and its effect on the discriminative power of the chemometric models was assessed. Extensive model validation, including the validation using independent samples from a different production year, was performed. Furthermore, the effect of the sample preparation technique (grinding versus no sample preparation) on the performance of the discriminative model, obtained with FT-NIR spectral data, was assessed. The study discusses the suitability of FT-NIR spectroscopy, HS-GC-IMS and the combination of both approaches for rapid determination of the geographical origin of Paw San rice.

The results demonstrated the excellent potential of the FT-NIR spectroscopy as well as HS-GC-IMS for the differentiation of Paw San rice cultivated in two distinct geographical regions. The OPLS-DA model, built using FT-NIR data of rice from 3 production years, achieved 96.67% total correct classification rate of an independent dataset from the 4th production year. The DD-SIMCA model, built using FT-NIR data of ground rice, also demonstrated the highest performance: 94% sensitivity and 97% specificity. This study has demonstrated that FT-NIR spectroscopy can be used as an accessible, rapid and cost-effective screening tool to discriminate between Paw San rice cultivated in the Shwe Bo and Ayeyarwady regions of Myanmar.

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12401825501?profile=RESIZE_400xMore than 1000 Volatile Organic Compounds (VOCs) have been identified in roasted coffee. They have been shown to be indicative of the roasting process, the type (Aribica or Rustica) and the specific variety and origin of the coffee bean.

In this paper (purchase required) the authors used an untargeted strategy to process SPME-GC-MS data coupled with chemometrics to identify VOCs volatile as possible markers to discriminate Arabica coffee and its main adulterants (corn, barley, soybean, rice, coffee husks, and Robusta coffee). They reported that Principal Component Analysis (PCA) showed the difference between roasted ground coffee and adulterants, while the Hierarchical Clustering of Principal Components (HCPC) and heat map showed a trend of adulterants separation. The partial Least-Squares Discriminant Analysis (PLS-DA) approach confirmed the PCA results. 24 VOCs were putatively identified, and 11 VOCs considered candidates as markers to detect coffee fraud, found exclusively in one type of adulterant: coffee husks, soybean, and rice.

Photo by Nathan Dumlao on Unsplash

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Global Alliance on Food Crime

12396529100?profile=RESIZE_710x We are delighted to be collaborating with the Global Alliance (GA) on Food Crime to bring a dedicated page for the GA on our website.

The GA is a coalition of international leaders who have agreed to work together on the prevention, detection and disruption of food crime. The GA initially agreed to have a small number of founder participants, consisting of food regulatory and enforcement organisations from Australia, Canada, New Zealand, the UK and the USA, but are looking to involve any country that is willing and able to contribute to the aims and objectives of the GA moving forward. 

The current Chair of the GA is Ron McNaughton, Head of the Scottish Food Crime and Incidents Unit at Food Standards Scotland, who said “Its fantastic that the Global Alliance now has a page on the Food Authenticity Network’s website. This gives us the ability to share information on the work of the GA in one place. This will be particularly important in terms of outlining progress towards achieving our strategic objectives, so many thanks to the Network for providing this great opportunity.”

Visit the Global Alliance page for more information and updates.

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12400088893?profile=RESIZE_400xThis dissertation from Florida State University describes designing and validating a species-specific PCR-lateral flow assay for Atlantic white shrimp (Litopenaeus setiferus) utilizing a miniaturized and cost-effective PCR instrument.  The selectivity was tested against 68 shrimp, prawn, and fish samples from 14 seafood species. L. setiferus was simultaneously amplified by the multiplex assay to give three visual bands, which distinguished it from other species having either one or two bands on the lateral flow stick.

The researcher also developed a specific red snapper assay, validating a rhPCR lateral flow assay where the thermotolerant RNase H2 enzyme was included in the PCR reaction to activate the red snapper-specific rhPCR primer. Amplicons generated in the duplex rhPCR reaction were detected using dual target lateral flow strips. The standardized assay was validated with 108 barcoded fish samples from 16 finfish species. Samples identified as Lutjanus campechanus or L. purpureus by DNA barcoding formed three distinct bands, while other fish species formed only two bands on the lateral flow strips. A minimum of 0.37 ng/μL crude DNA was needed to obtain a visible band on the lateral flow dip stick.

Both assays showed 100% specificity and took 90–120 minutes for completion. The researcher concludes that this confirms the suitability of PCR and rhPCR-lateral flow assays as an economical on-site tool for species authentication in the seafood industry.

Photo by Michal Mrozek on Unsplash

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12399848279?profile=RESIZE_400xAcciMap is a systems-based technique used to analyse accidents that occurred within complex socio-technical systems. It has been used to drill into the causes of serious accidents in fields such as transportation or recreation, and also for applications such as identifying risk factors for child labour in supply chains.  More recently it has been used for food safety incidents and foodborne disease outbreaks.

This pre-publication paper is the first report on this methodology being used to analyse contributory factors in food fraud incidents.  The authors applied the model to the milk adulteration scandal (melamine) that emerged in China in 2008.  They coupled AcciMap with a classical Food Fraud Vulnerability Assessment approach (systemic weaknesses associated with opportunities, motivation and control measures).  Their model identified forty-eight contributory factors of influence grouped across six sociotechnical levels across the Chinese dairy system from government to equipment and surroundings. Lack of vertical integration (processes and communication) contributed to the failure. The authors conclude that, when viewed in a broader perspective, the melamine milk scandal can be linked to a series of human error and organisational issues associated with government bodies, the dairy supply chain, individual organisations and management decisions and individual actions of staff or processes.

Image from the publication

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12399843483?profile=RESIZE_400xLast week the UK National Food Crime Unit (NFCU) rolled out their Food Crime Confidential whisteblower hotline to Northern Ireland with an official launch and series of publicity releases. The Food Crime Confidential number, 0800 028 11 80, can be used by anyone who has suspicion about food crime and wants to report it safely and confidentially to the NFCU. NFCU is a law enforcement arm of the Food Standards Agency.

Photo: FSA, Twitter/X

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12399331681?profile=RESIZE_710xWe are delighted to present our Annual Summary, which highlights key activities and outputs from 2023.

It contains news about our membership and users of the website, as well as the activities of the Team at UK and international events. Information of new government reports and new content added to the website is presented, as well information of the categories of open access resources available on the website with a spotlight on our popular food fraud prevention pages.

The types of food authenticity Centres of Expertise are shown, as is the Food Chain ID data for 2023, which gives the foods most reported as being fraudulent.

Our 2023 awards and surveys are also highlighted as well as our funding Partners, without whom we would not be able to operate the Food Authenticity Network as an open access resource for all stakeholders globally.

Download your copy here and please share with your colleagues.

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12399235065?profile=RESIZE_400xThere are many species of cinnamon, with different commercial values, and so ground cinnamon is a perennial risk for substitution or adulteration of one species by another.  This article (open access) reviews analytical methods for cinnamon authentication.  It lists over 30 targeted methods, published from the 1980’s  to the current day.   The most common analytical markers in cinnamon authentication are cinnamaldehyde, coumarin, eugenol, and cinnamyl alcohol, but methods also include profiling of trace metal and mineral content.  The review also lists 18 untargeted methods using techniques such as NMR or IR coupled with chemometrics.  The authors conclude that most untargeted studies are limited to exploratory analysis and the ones employing classification chemometric methods are mostly devoted to the classifying pure samples of different species. More work is needed to develop methods to detect partial adulteration, which the authors consider to be a high risk in the current market.

Diagram from the article

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12187140699?profile=RESIZE_180x180The 7th session of the Codex alimentarius Committee on Spices and Culinary Herbs (CCSCH7), chaired by India, concluded its work on several important new add-ons to existing and new standards on small cardamon; allspice, juniper berry and star anise; and turmeric. It advanced the work on vanilla, still subject to additional inter-sessional work until the next session. It provided some clarifications about the labelling provisions for saffron on the country of harvest vs country of origin and recommended several methods of analysis. CCSCH7 agreed to start new work on four new standards on sweet marjoram; dried seeds – coriander; large cardamon; and on cinnamon with the help of specific electronic working groups. The USA also presented an advanced template for any new future proposed standard on spices and culinary herbs. The USA also agreed to prepare a discussion paper on trade data availability for spices and culinary herbs in general.

A very good summary of the session and outcomes is in a post by US law firm Keller & Heckman here.

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12398543059?profile=RESIZE_400xThe authors of this recent paper (open access) review the use of anti-counterfeiting measures in the supply chains of high value foods, such as foods with PDO or PGI designation.  They consider five classifications of anti-counterfeiting measures: mechanical solutions (labels, seals, anti-alteration devices), marking technologies (codes, holograms, covert inks, microtexts), digital traceability, electronic labels (RFID, NFD), and blockchain.  The authors cite examples and case studies where these measures have been used within five supply chain categories; milk & dairy products, meat & meat products, fish & seafood products, wines & spirits, olive oil.  They conclude that, of the available anti-counterfeiting tools, RFID tags and digital traceability systems are relatively underused in the highest risk supply chains.

Photo by Dmitry Mashkin on Unsplash

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12398330273?profile=RESIZE_710xA new report has been published by the UK Food Standards Agency on a review of methods for the analysis of culinary herbs and spices for authenticity.

Herbs and spices are a commodity group that consistently appear in the top ten commodities most reported as being adulterated. Due to the large variety of products that fall within the category of herbs and spices, complex global supply chains and commercial production processes, methods for verifying their authenticity / detecting fraud are not straight forward.

The main aim of this project was to identify methods for the analysis of culinary herbs and spices, in their dehydrated or dried form, for authenticity with a focus on detecting deliberate adulteration.

Authenticity testing of herbs and spices is a complex matter, and the analytical approaches used for the authenticity testing of herbs and spices are very much dependent on stakeholder needs and the purpose of testing. All methods and technologies used for the authenticity testing of herbs and spices suffer from the same issues of the lack of reliable reference samples, and difficulty of accessing proprietary validated datasets, on which to validate the methods to demonstrate their fitness for purpose. 

Read the full report and recommendations here. The report has also been added to the Research Reports section of this website.

Photo by Clément Bergey on Unsplash
 
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12397736262?profile=RESIZE_400xIn this paper (purchase required) the authors make use of a recently developed ambient ionisation source for mass spectrometry.  Self Aspiration Corona Discharge Ionisation (SACDI-MS) enabled the direct measurement of volatile compounds from coffee, and when the authors coupled this with an Air Curtain Sampling Device it meant that, by removing interfering volatiles from neighbouring batches, they could design an in-line sensor suitable for use in a production environment.  The use of Deep Learning Algorithms with an Artificial Neural Network enabled them to compensate for other interfering peaks from environmental volatiles, often a problem in direct ionisation mass spectrometry.  They constructed a chemometric classification model using a reference set of coffees from 6 different geographic origins and proved that they could differentiate between them in a high-throughput, rapid production environment.  They conclude that this makes the approach ideal for in-line screening of coffee authenticity in situations when there is a consistent “expected” origin, used to train a classification model, that needs to be distinguished from substitution by “unexpected” origin coffee.

Photo by Andrew Neel on Unsplash

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12395795901?profile=RESIZE_400xEuropean legislation permits the inclusion of non-cocoa vegetable fats up to 5% into milk chocolate recipes.  Anything beyond this is adulteration.

In this paper (purchase required) the authors report the use of proton NMR combined with chemometrics to discriminate between milk fats, cocoa fats and non-cocoa vegetable fats (“cocoa butter equivalents”, CBE).  They prepared known mixes (0-100%) of different fats.  They used both a targeted and an untargeted approach.  The targeted approach used the integrals of the signals belonging to ω-3, ω-6, ω-9, and saturated fatty acids.  The untargeted approach used the spectra as fingerprints.

The authors reported that the untargeted partial least-squares discriminant analysis model (PLS-DA) recognized the type of CBE in blends with sensitivities in prediction higher than 75%. The targeted PLS-DA model was capable of recognizing non-adulterated milk chocolate fats with 100% sensitivity and specificity in prediction. Conversely, low percentages in sensitivity were achieved for most of CBEs. Both targeted and untargeted PLS regression models efficiently determined the amount of CBE in blends. Fingerprinting models showed better results both in the classification and quantification of CBEs.  They conclude that this proves the applicability of 1H NMR in milk chocolate quality control.

Photo by Kaffee Meister on Unsplash

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12391690655?profile=RESIZE_400xNew designated protected names came into force yesterday, under the UK/Japan trade agreement signed in 2021.

Within the UK, the following foods will now have protected descriptors and Geographical Indications

  • Daiei Suika 
  • Daisen Broccoli 
  • Echizen Gani/Echizen Kani 
  • Edosaki Kabocha 
  • Futago Satoimo/Futago Imonoko 
  • Hiba Gyu 
  • Higashiizumo no Maruhata Hoshigaki 
  • Hiyama Haishen 
  • Ibuki Soba/Ibuki Zairaisoba 
  • Iburigakko 
  • Iwadeyama Koridofu/Iwadeyama Meisan Koridofu 
  • Koge Hanagoshogaki 
  • Kumamoto Akaushi 
  • Matsudate Shibori Daikon 
  • Mito no Yawaraka Negi 
  • Monobe Yuzu 
  • Nango Tomato 
  • Okukuji Shamo 
  • Ozasa Urui 
  • Sayo Mochidaizu 
  • Taisyu Soba 
  • Tokyo Shamo 
  • Toyama Hoshigaki 
  • Tsunan no Yukishita Ninjin 
  • Tsuruta Steuben 
  • Yamadai Kansho 
  • Yamagata Celery 
  • Yatsushiro Tokusan Banpeiyu 
  • Zentsujisan Shikakusuika 
  • Hagi 
  • Harima 
  • Hokkaido 
  • Mie 
  • Nadagogo 
  • Tone Numata 
  • Wakayama Umeshu 
  • Yamanashi

Within Japan, the following foods will now have protected descriptors and Geographic Indications

  • Cornish Clotted Cream 
  • Cornish Pasty  
  • Anglesey Sea Salt/Halen Môn 
  • Arbroath Smokies 
  • Conwy Mussels 
  • East Kent Goldings 
  • London Cure Smoked Salmon 
  • Lough Neagh Eel 
  • Lough Neagh Pollan 
  • Melton Mowbray Pork Pie 
  • Orkney Scottish Island Cheddar 
  • Pembrokeshire Earlies/Pembrokeshire Early Potatoes 
  • Scotch Beef 
  • Scotch Lamb 
  • Single Gloucester 
  • Staffordshire Cheese 
  • Stornoway Black Pudding 
  • Traditional Ayrshire Dunlop 
  • Traditional Cumberland Sausage 
  • Traditional Grimsby Smoked Fish 
  • Traditional Welsh Caerphilly 
  • Welsh Beef 
  • Welsh Lamb 
  • Welsh Laverbread 
  • West Country Beef 
  • West Country Lamb 
  • Yorkshire Wensleydale 
  • English Wine 
  • English Regional Wine 
  • Herefordshire Cider 
  • Herefordshire Perry 
  • Irish Poteen 
  • Kentish Ale 
  • Kentish Strong Ale 
  • Somerset Cider Brandy 
  • Welsh Wine 
  • Welsh Regional Wine 

The UK government press release is here.

Photo by Richard Iwaki on Unsplash

 

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12391673894?profile=RESIZE_400xThe European Commission has published its first monthly report on EU Agri-Food Fraud. The stated intent of this free list of incident collations is to help both regulatory authorities and food businesses target their fraud defence activities to the highest risk areas.

The report collates all entries from iRASSF that have been categorised as “suspicious”.  It therefore includes official controls, border rejections, whistleblower complaints and media reports (unlike, for example, the JRC monthly food fraud collation which is fed purely by media reports).  It does not include “suspicions” which have not been communicated outside of the originating nation.

In January 2024, 277 “suspicions” are listed.  Read the January report here.

(image from the report)

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12391389882?profile=RESIZE_400xThis paper (purchase required) reports a simple screening method for vegetable oil adulterants (corn, sesame, soy, sunflower, almond, and hazelnut) in olive oil.  It is based on a multispecies DNA sensor that can be read with the naked eye. It is the first report of a DNA sensor for olive oil adulteration detection with other plant oils. The researchers have identified unique nucleotide variations which enable the discrimination of the seven plant species. Following a single PCR step, a 20 minute multiplex plant-discrimination reaction is performed, and the products are applied directly to the sensing device. The plant species are visualized as red spots using functionalized gold nanoparticles as reporters. The spot position reveals the identity of the plant species. The authors report that <5–10% of adulterant was detected with good reproducibility and specificity.

Image from the paper

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The results of the FSA's most recent surveillance testing project of food and beverages are published here.  This covers retail samples (including online sales) purchased in October 2022 by various local authorities in England, Wales and Northern Ireland.  It included authenticity testing on 437 samples including meat and meat products, herbs and spices, basmati rice, coffee, cheese and olive oil.   97% were reported as authentic and two reported as inconclusive. The main commodities with authenticity issues identified were oregano with 13% of samples containing other leaf types and basmati rice with 10% of the basmati rice samples reported as having been adulterated with non-basmati rice varieties or in one instance having no approved basmati varieties at all.

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12391384854?profile=RESIZE_400xFSS have published (here) their 2024-27 strategic plan for food crime prevention.  It is a high-level document and, although written for Scotland, the principles are applicable for regulators and enforcement bodies anywhere.  It describes a model for the identification, analysis and implementation of measures to reduce or prevent the ccurrence or re-occurrence of food crime and the identification and mitigation of related future food crime risks.

(image from the strategic plan)

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12390114096?profile=RESIZE_400xIn this proof-of-concept study (purchase required) the authors used direct-sampling ambient mass spectrometry (REIMS, sometimes called the “ion knife”) to build a classification model for different cuts of beef.  They analysed untargeted lipid profile data from a reference set of 125 authenticated samples purchased directly from an abattoir (25 each of ribeye, sirloin, brisket, shank and foreshank) from 12-month old bulls of the Pirenaica breed.  They used machine learning to select discriminatory features (11 fatty acids and 44 phospholipids).  They report good discrimination between different cuts of meat using the model.

Photo by amirali mirhashemian on Unsplash

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BSI Supply Chain Risks & Opportunities Report

12390110076?profile=RESIZE_400xThe 2023 BSI Supply Chain Risks and Opportunities Report is available for free download.

Food & beverage was the league-leading sector for supply chain theft, accounting for 22% of global reported thefts (up from 17% in 2022). 

Other watchouts include

  • The reverberating impact of climate change impacts, a stark example being a trebling of virgin olive oil commodity price over the past 2 years.
  • In the US, 48 ransomware attacks in the food and drink sector reported in 2023 by the FBI Crime Compliant Sector.

Image from the report

 

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