News

In our 14th June 2022 Newsletter, we have the following articles:

• An Update on the Network's Centres of Expertise (CoEs)
• New Food Security Resource Base
• CoE Profile - Bangor University
• Under Pressure: Fraud in the Food Industry by Tenet Law
• Food Most Reported as Fraudulent - Karen Everstine, FoodChain ID
• Government Chemist Publishes Scientific Paper on Honey Authentication
• Joint Knowledge Transfer Framework for Food Standards and Food Safety Analysis
• Food Authenticity Network 2021 Annual Summary

You can download the Newsletter in our Documents Section here

Methods to distinguish crops grown on synthetic fertilisation regimes and organic fertilisation regimes have used nitrogen and oxygen stable isotopes or metabolomics to authenticate growing practices. This research look at the metabolites from tomatoes grown on synthetic and organic fertiliser regimes with synthetic and natural crop protection substances. Using LC-HRMS, the metabolite profile revealed the presence of a compound later identified as gerberin. The levels of gerberin correlated negatively with the presence of synthetic fertilisers, and therefore could be used a biomarker for distinguishing agricultural practices and verifying organic production. 

Read the abstract here

 A research project by the Department of Science and Technology-Philippine Nuclear Research Institute (DOST-PNRI) using the AOAC mass spectrometry method for C4 sugar addition found that 75 to 86.5% of local honey brands on the Philippine market are adulterated with sugar syrups from either sugar cane or maize. The study's findings have been passed the the Philippine government for further investigation and hopefuly resolution to assist legitimate honey producers, who are losing considerable sales due to the widespread distribution of adulterated honey in the market, and consumers who are deceived into buying them.

Read the article here

This is Tenet's quarterly publication helping in house counsel and those from a science background assessing food safety keep up to date with current and emerging fraud related risks.

If you work in the food and drinks industry and take an interest in fraud and financial crime impact in the sector, please take a look at the Issue 4 of The Secret Ingredient.

May 2022

Disruptions in the food supply chain are no doubt the ‘new normal’, whether that is labour shortages, wholesale energy prices, shortages of carbon dioxide (CO₂), more friction with border documentation and checks, or supply chain restrictions related to Covid-19 and EU Exit. The conflict in the Ukraine has caused even greater concerns over food supply restrictions over the short to medium term.

Pressures on labour availability means that the practical, managerial and leadership skillsets, required across the food sector, vary from business to business being readily available in some sectors to being niche and in short supply in others. The economic, environmental and social challenges we have seen in the last two years are causing businesses to reconsider their reliance on people for tasks and decision-making and to turn to automation on manufacturing lines, and artificial intelligence and machine learning, to reduce their vulnerability to labour issues. These supply chain disruption issues singularly, or in combination, create multiple challenges that businesses need to address by embedding mitigation strategies in their business planning. This means that business approaches to risk identification, assessment and management need to be reviewed and revised as the world becomes a more uncertain place to do business. 

As a result, business continuity planning has never been more important for all food businesses, from multinational corporations operating across the world, to micro food businesses developing food products and meeting the needs of local customers. Every food business has its unique continuity challenges, whether associated with particular food ingredients, packaging or materials, used in their processes, location, relationships with its supply chain or final market or consumer trends.  

Horizon scanning is a systematic approach to considering evidence of particular trends, and then actual and potential scenarios, in order to determine whether an organisation is adequately prepared for established and emerging threats, has appropriate risk identification, assessment and management procedures in place and if suitable controls are implemented, can readily adopt adequate measures for threat elimination, mitigation or control.  Pinch point mapping and analysis is one form of horizon scanning to determine business and supply chain vulnerability and measures to reduce such vulnerability.  

Read IFST's guide to Pinch Point Mapping and Analysis

The NFCU is a law enforcement unit of the FSA, and it tackles serious, organised, or complex cases of crime in relation to food. Its role is to detect, investigate and disrupt serious fraud and related criminality within food supply chains, across England, Wales and Northern Ireland. The FSA would like to use the powers provided under the new Police, Crime, Sentencing and Courts Act 2022, to give the NFCU additional investigative powers enabling food crime to be investigated more quickly, while also freeing up local police services. The FSA has issued a public consultation for all stakeholders on this proposed change. The closing date of the consultation is 18 August 2022.

Read the FSA's Press Release which gives a link to the consultation

In 2020 to 2021, the CFIA tested a total of 525 samples for authenticity. Its targeted sampling yielded the following % of satisfactory results:

88.5% honey, 91.2% fish, 87.8% olive oil, 66.2% other expensive oils (such as, sesame seed oil, grapeseed oil, coconut oil, almond oil and others), and 92.9% spices.

Where the results were unsatisfactory, the CFIA took corrective or enforcement action, including products being removed from Canadian market, or their detention, destruction, or relabelling. In the case of honey for example, the following amounts of adulterated honey was prevented from entering the Canadian market.

• 142 kg of imported honey was voluntarily destroyed
• 17 800 kg were removed from Canada
• 10 963 cases and 5 barrels were detained

The results of the CFIA's report on food fraud are being used to inform future sampling and inspection strategies to better target foods that are more likely to be misrepresented.

Read the CFIA News Release or the full report giving all the results of the sampling.

 This research was recently presented as a conference poster. The Spanish researchers froze mackerel fillets under 3 different freezing regimes and also had a chilled control. The water content and weight loss was determined, and IR spectra obtained from two types of NIR spectrometer (one being hand-held), followed by chemometric analysis. The results indicated that the NIR spectrometers could differentiate 100% between the chilled fillets and the frozen fillets subjected to different numbers of freeze/thaw cycles, which was attributed to the water content loss caused by the freeze/thaw cycles. The same change in spectra occurred when measuring (blind) thawed samples, as well as the changes caused by freezing in the physical muscle cell structure. In frozen samples, differences in spectra of previousy frozen/thawed and refrozen samples were as a result of scattering of light by the ice crystal structure caused by different freezing regimes.

Read the full poster

Correct labelling of animal based products is essential for consumer protection and in the case of Bangladesh for religious reasons. A survey was carried  on 64 meat products both locally produced and imported (40 chicken labelled products and 24 beef labelled products) purchased from local retailers in Dhaka. Also, 25 Mozzarella-type cheese products both locally produced and imported were similarly collected. The samples were analysed using 2 duplex PCR assays of species specific primers from the mitochondrial Cyt B gene, namely beef-buffalo and chicken-pork assays. Of the 22 Bangladeshi beef labelled products, 2 contained buffalo DNA and 5 contained chicken DNA. The 2 imported beef products from Malaysia contained buffalo DNA, as did 8 of the 12 imported chicken products. Buffalo DNA was detected in 4 out of the 12 locally produced cheese products labelled as produced from cows milk. None of the samples, which were labelled as halal had pork DNA detected.

Read the full open access paper

An authenticity marker made from casein, integrated with a silicon microchip smaller than grain of salt, has been developed to help the Parmigiano Reggiano Consortium guarantee the authenticity of its products. The total value of Parmesan cheese production is estimated at Euros 2.35 billion, but it has also been estimated that the value of fake Parmesan produced globally is around Euros 2 billion. The Consortium has partnered with a US microchip producer (p-Chip) and a Dutch company to combine the microchip with casein (plus glycerol and alcohol), where it is introduced into the Parmesan cheese production process. The microchip is virtually impossible to duplicate and it can withstand extreme temperatures and solvents. It has undergone extensive  testing for 2 years, and is being introduced into the production of 100,000 wheels of Parmesan in the second quarter of 2022.

Read the article here

The European Commission's Joint Research Centre (JRC) has published its April 2022 Food Fraud Monthly 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 2 interesting articles on "Biggest Cases of Food Fraud Ever", and an FAO Report on strategies to counter food fraud, 

You can download the full summary here

                                                                                                     Photo by W. Grover, UCR

Prof. Grover at the University of California, Riverside has developed a coating technique called CandyCode, which could prevent counterfeiting of food and pharmaceuticals. The technique was developed by coating pills with coloured  "hundreds and thousands". The unique pattern of colours created on the pills acts as an "edible barcode". In assessing how unique the coated pills were, and how many variations would be possible, a computer simulation was used of even larger CandyCode libraries, Prof Glover found that a company could produce 41 million pills enough for each person on earth, and still be able to uniquely identify each CandyCoded pill. A pharmaceutical producer could cover each pill it produced in the tiny coloured candies, then uploaded a photo of it into its system, and consumers would be able to guarantee that a pill is genuine by scanning their drugs using a smartphone app. The technique can be applied to other mediums such as bottle caps for fraud protection of wine, olive oil etc..

Read the article or the open access paper

Italian authorities supported by experts from the Ministry of Agriculture, and the Technical Department of the Financial Police, have completed one of the country’s most extensive operations against the sale of mislabelled olive oil, by investigating 183 companies involved in olive oil imports and commercialisation. Products worth more than €170,000 were seized by the police, which resulted in a total of €10 million in administrative fines. Of the samples analysed, more than 27% failed the tests governing extra virgin olive. The authorities claim that they have prevented 2.3 million litres of virgin and refined olive oils labelled as extra virgin olive oil from entering the market. 

Read the article here

  The Austrian Agency for Health and Food Safety (AGES) is setting up a new IRMS (Isotope Ratio Mass Spectrometry) Unit to verify the origin and authenticity of food, feed and plants. It is seeking to recruit an IRMS expert, who would:

• Develop stable isotope mass spectrometry (IRMS) to verify the origin and authenticity of food, feed and plants,
• Develop and optimise of IRMS methods including analysis and equipment maintenance,
• Undertake statistical evaluations of the measurement data to assess origin and authenticity,
• Conceive and implement of research projects,
• Give lectures and publish scientific papers,
• Participate in national and international working groups and cooperation networks,
• Further develop authenticity testing in connection with other measurement techniques, in coordination with scientific findings and market requirements

 More details and application on-line at: https://jobs.ages.at/Job/179932

A Peer reviewed papaer of an interlaboratory comparison of a Liquid Chromatography-Isotope Ratio Mass Spectrometry (LC-IRMS) method for the determination of ¹³C/¹²C ratios of saccharides in honey has been published.

This paper is based on a European Comission Joint Research Centre report, which was previosly reported on the Food Authenticity Network: EC Publishes report on the Interlaboratory Comparison of LC-IRMS applied on honey - News - FoodAuthenticity

Stable carbon isotope analysis of sugars in honey by LC–IRMS is a useful tool for detecting adulteration of honey with extraneous sugar.

Syrups that mimic the composition of honey that are produced by chemical and/or enzymatic modification of starch or sucrose are difficult to detect (10). If the starting product is obtained from a C4 plant, such as maize or sugar cane, stable carbon isotope ratio analysis (SCIRA) using a combination of an elemental analyzer (EA) and an isotope ratio mass spectrometer (IRMS) offers a possibility to detect additions down to a level of 7% (11).

Sugars originating from C3 plants such as beet root or generated from rice or wheat starch escape detection by SCIRA. Combining LC with IRMS (LC–IRMS) offers new possibilities for detecting honey adulteration with sugars derived from C3 plants and increases the sensitivity for detecting C4 sugars (12, 13).

Addition of 1% C4 sugars and 10% C3 sugars can be reliably detected using the LC–IRMS approach. Another benefit is that, as the method determines the ¹³C/¹²C ratios of saccharides in honey, it moves away from reliance on external databases.

The method has gained popularity (14–20) but has never been subjected to multilaboratory validation, until now, which is a prerequisite for further developing it into a standard by a standards-developing organization. This peer reviewed publication reports on an interlaboratory comparison of this method. Read open access paper.

This method has now been accepted as a work item for standardisation by Working Group 6 (Stable Isotope Analysis) of CEN Technical Committee 460 (Food Authenticity).

In this paper, a quantitative method based on LC-HRMS (liquid chromatography-high resolution mass spectrometry) for the simultaneous detection and differentiation of milk type from eight different animal species (namely: cow, water buffalo, wild yak, goat, sheep, donkey, horse, and camel) was developed by detecting species specific peptides originating from casein. The use of stable isotope labelled peptides was adopted in the developed method in order to increase its accuracy and precision. The developed method was validated in-house in terms of sensitivity, accuracy, and precision. It was also used in a market survey of 46 commercial minor species’ milk products, in which 15 samples were deemed to be mislabelled.

Read the abstract here

Arabica coffee beans have twice the value, or more, compared to Robusta beans, and consequently are susceptible to substitution. In this study, MSI was applied to discriminate roasted Arabica and Robusta coffee beans and perform a quantitative prediction of Arabica coffee bean adulteration with Robusta. Using selected spectral and morphological features from individual coffee beans, and applying an OPLS-DA (orthogonal partial least squares discriminant analysis) model, a 100% correct classification of the two coffee species in the test dataset was achieved. In addition, the OPLS regression model was able to successfully predict the level of adulteration of Arabica with Robusta. 

Read the full open access paper

There are 144 EVOOs registered with protected denomination of origin (PDOs) and protected geographical indication (PGIs), which may be vulnerable to fraudulent practices because of their high economic value. This study aimed to develop an instrumental tool to assess the compliance of PDO EVOOs from Catalonia. A sample set of 350 EVOOs were collected from different regions of Catalonia (260 samples)  over 3 growing seasons, and the rest of the EVOO and VOO samples (90) came from other Mediterranean producing countries (Greece, Italy, Morocco, Tunisia, and Turkey). Discriminant analysis based on the sesquiterpene hydrocarbon fingerprint determined by HS-SPME-GC-MS (headspace solid-phase microextraction coupled to gas chromatography–mass spectrometry) followed by chemometric analysis of the samples achieved a correct classification of 93.6% of samples among the four Catalan regional PDOs. However, the method achieved a discrimination between each Catalan PDO and the non-PDO samples, produced in different geographical areas with an efficiency between 95% and 99%.

Read the full open access paper

Rice is one othe most consumed foods globally, and different subgroups of rice varieties have different sales values e.g. Basmati rice is much more expensive than non-Basmati long grained rice. This paper by Portuguese researchers reviews DNA-based methods because they are considered particularly reliable and stable for discrimination of rice varieties. The review covers the diversity of strategies and ongoing improvements already tested, highlighting important advantages and disadvantages in terms of costs, reliability, labour-effort and potential scalability for routine fraud detection.

Read the full open access paper

 Given the price differential between goat milk and cow milk, methods to determine goat milk adulteration are important. Chinese researchers developed methodology to determine β-carotene and its metabolites based on various spectroscopic techniques combined with an extraction method using a cold-induced acetonitrile aqueous two-phase separation system in order to weaken the interaction between β-lactoglobulin and β-carotene metabolites. Validation showed that β-carotene is distinctive biomarker in cow milk, and retinol, retinaldehyde, retinoic acid and abscisic acid in goat milk.  

Read the abstract here