From ‘honey laundering’ to fake caviar: The seven types of food frauds

For many of us, this seems unbelievable, especially in Australia, but it’s happening all over the world.

Food fraud means consumers waste money or more worryingly, eat food with toxic ingredients or undeclared allergens. Source: Getty Images

Our food supply chains are now longer, more complex and faster than ever before, with some blind spots that cannot be regulated.

This breach of trust – known as food fraud – happens when food producers or distributors intentionally deceive consumers, shops and restaurants about the quality and contents of the foods they are purchasing. Consumers face wasting money on lower-quality products, or more worryingly, eating food adulterated with toxic ingredients or undeclared allergens.

Food fraud can occur in the raw food itself, an ingredient, the final product, or in the food’s packaging, sometimes with fatal results. There are some tips for consumers to avoid food fraud, but we also need better ways to prevent and detect it.

The impact of food fraud

Because of the modern techniques now involved – like the injection of gels – food fraud may seem like a modern problem, but it’s actually very old.

In ancient Rome and Athens, laws existed regarding the adulteration of wines with flavours and colours, suggesting that food fraud began almost as soon as humans transitioned from subsistence farming to selling food products.

Today, the issue is more widespread and costs billions of dollars, usually when customers pay a premium price for a fraudulent product. Agrifutures Australia estimated the cost of global food fraud is $40 to 50 billion annually, with $2 to 3 billion in Australia alone.

But this is just the tip of the iceberg as many frauds go unreported or undetected, especially in developing countries. It is also very difficult to detect the true nature of food fraud, so more research into these techniques is needed.

A cartoon from 1876 suggests a “cure to prevent the adulteration of London milk would be to adopt the Maltese custom of bringing the cow or goat to the door, and having the article direct from the animal”. Source: Getty Images

The seven types of food fraud

Adulterated prawns, injected with different chemicals including jelly-like materials are a growing problem. Source: Getty Images

Some foods are more vulnerable to food fraud

Food fraud can occur in any type of food and beverage but is more common in high-value or premium products.

Saffron can be adulterated using cheap synthetic colourants and even natural adulterants. Mislabelling, presenting lower-grade saffron as superior and misrepresenting its geographic origin are also common fraud practices.

Substitution of cheaper Chinese truffles closely resembling expensive black French truffles has been a problem for decades.

Seafood is the most valuable and highly traded food. Adulterated prawns injected with different chemicals including jelly-like materials are a growing problem in China.

Fraud prawns usually have similar colour appearance and even a fresh look, but their weight is increased to gain higher profits. These materials could be non-food grade and have the potential to cause serious health issues. Caviar fraud is also common all around the world.

A popular roasted fish fillet product sold in China was found to have a 75% mislabelling rate when it was substituted with other species (often outside the expected family of fish) including potentially toxic pufferfish species. This study was based on a DNA barcoding method, that identifies a species by sections of DNA from a particular gene or genes.

The same technology showed higher rates of mislabelling and substitution of fish species in sushi and sashimi at supermarkets, retail and even in restaurants in Lima, Peru.

In 2013, testing revealed horsemeat in one-third of beefburgers tested and pig meat in 85%. Source: Unsplash/ Amirali Mirhashemian

Dairy products are also common in global food fraud incidents, with contamination and fraud issues occurring along the dairy supply chain. A study by UK scientists found cheese products have the highest number of safety and adulteration alerts.

India is the world’s largest milk producer, but milk adulteration with harmful chemicals like urea or contaminated water is an increasing problem.

Probiotic dairy products like yoghurt are considered highly vulnerable to fraudulent practices, as these beneficial probiotic microorganisms are invisible to consumers.

There is a growing risk of these products not meeting the minimum number of live probiotics claimed on the packaging.

Meat products may be substituted for other species like the 2013 Europe scandal where DNA testing revealed horsemeat in one-third of beefburgers sampled and pig meat in 85%.

Higher-priced commodities like alcoholic beverages, oils, fats, nuts and spices are highly vulnerable to food fraud. The increase in e-commerce and online selling of products provides more opportunities for deceptive and dishonest practices involving food fraud.

What can we do about food fraud?

Because everyone needs to eat, the only way to fully avoid food fraud is to have honest food chains. But we cannot expect this all the time. So buying locally from a trusted vendor would be the best way, given that longer supply chains provide more opportunities for food fraud.

Even though it can be difficult to detect, check for any possible fraud in food and beverages, like packaging tampering and altered use-by dates. High-value products being sold at a lower price than the market price may also be suspicious.

Inspection of raw materials, and effective monitoring of food processing and distribution, all help to minimise food fraud. Source: Getty Images

Techniques currently available to detect certain types of food fraud include DNA barcoding of meat and fish, but these aren’t always available, being expensive, time-consuming and requiring skilled labour.

Implementing vigorous controls and the inspection of raw materials, as well as an effective system to monitor food handling, processing and distribution systems all help to minimise food fraud.

But this needs to be supported by the enforcement of strict regulations and good manufacturing practices by food regulatory authorities – targeting all stakeholders involved along the food supply chain before they reach the consumer.

With stricter regulations, and educating consumers and those at every stage of the food chain, we can better protect ourselves from fraud and have the confidence to enjoy our food.

This article was first published on Pursuit. Read the original article.