Food Fraud with Melamine and Global Implications: Was Africa Left Defenseless to the Chinese Melamine Scandal?

2016 ◽  
pp. 356-379 ◽  
Keyword(s):  
Food Fraud

scholarly journals Development and validation of a method for quantification of common wheat, durum wheat, rye and barley by droplet digital PCR

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Christian Schulze ◽  
Anne-Catrin Geuthner ◽  
Dietrich Mäde
Keyword(s):  
Durum Wheat ◽  
Real Time ◽  
Bread Wheat ◽  
Common Wheat ◽  
Real Time Pcr ◽  
Digital Pcr ◽  
Droplet Digital Pcr ◽  
Food Fraud ◽  
Single Genome ◽  
Cereal Species

AbstractFood fraud is becoming a prominent topic in the food industry. Thus, valid methods for detecting potential adulterations are necessary to identify instances of food fraud in cereal products, a significant component of human diet. In this work, primer–probe systems for real-time PCR and droplet digital PCR (ddPCR) for the detection of these cereal species: bread wheat (together with spelt), durum wheat, rye and barley for real-time PCR and ddPCR were established, optimized and validated. In addition, it was projected to validate a molecular system for differentiation of bread wheat and spelt; however, attempts for molecular differentiation between common wheat and spelt based on the gene GAG56D failed because of the genetic variability of the molecular target. Primer–probe systems were further developed and optimized on the basis of alignments of DNA sequences, as well as already developed PCR systems. The specificity of each system was demonstrated on 10 (spelt), 11 (durum wheat and rye) and 12 (bread wheat) reference samples. Specificity of the barley system was already proved in previous work. The calculated limits of detection (LOD95%) were between 2.43 and 4.07 single genome copies in real-time PCR. Based on the “three droplet rule”, the LOD95% in ddPCR was calculated to be 9.07–13.26 single genome copies. The systems were tested in mixtures of flours (rye and common wheat) and of semolina (durum and common wheat). The methods proved to be robust with regard to the tested conditions in the ddPCR. The developed primer–probe systems for ddPCR proved to be effective in quantitatively detecting the investigated cereal species rye and common wheat in mixtures by taking into account the haploid genome weight and the degree of milling of a flour. This method can correctly detect proportions of 50%, 60% and 90% wholemeal rye flour in a mixture of wholemeal common wheat flour. Quantitative results depend on the DNA content, on ploidy of cereal species and are also influenced by comminution. Hence, the proportion of less processed rye is overestimated in higher processed bread wheat and adulteration of durum wheat by common wheat by 1–5% resulted in underestimation of common wheat.

scholarly journals Sublimation for Enrichment and Identification of Marker Compounds in Fruits

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Manuel Gronbach ◽  
Laura Kraußer ◽  
Timo Broese ◽  
Christina Oppermann ◽  
Udo Kragl
Keyword(s):  
Sea Buckthorn ◽  
Food Chemistry ◽  
Food Fraud ◽  
The Past ◽  
Marker Substances ◽  
Plant Powders ◽  
Plant Constituents ◽  
Marker Compounds ◽  
Fruit Powder ◽  
Berry Extracts

AbstractIn this article, we describe the benefits of sublimation for natural product and food chemistry. The direct sublimation of substances from dried plant powders has not received much attention in research in the past, just like the sublimation of substances from dried plant extracts. We used sublimation to study dried sea buckthorn berry powders and dried sea buckthorn berry extracts. The results of the powder sublimations were compared to that of dried chokeberry, wolfberry, and European cornel powder. 52 marker substances of which 27 are specific for sea buckthorn were found in the sea buckthorn powder sublimates using LC/MS. The majority of them are not described in the literature and were obtained by direct sublimation. Accordingly, sublimation can help to identify new plant constituents. Our identification method was validated by the analysis of four commercially available fruit powders. The sea buckthorn powder showed an almost 80% correlation with the determined marker substances, whereas the other fruit powders did not achieve more than 38% correlation. The sublimates of sea buckthorn extracts show additional marker substances compared to the fruit powder sublimate, and we think that both techniques can be used to fight food fraud.

scholarly journals The Use of UV Spectroscopy and SIMCA for the Authentication of Indonesian Honeys According to Botanical, Entomological and Geographical Origins

Molecules ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 26 (4) ◽  
pp. 915
Author(s):  
Diding Suhandy ◽  
Meinilwita Yulia
Keyword(s):  
Spectral Data ◽  
Uv Spectroscopy ◽  
Moving Average ◽  
Food Product ◽  
Classification Method ◽  
Economic Losses ◽  
Food Fraud ◽  
Authentication System ◽  
Uv Visible

As a functional food, honey is a food product that is exposed to the risk of food fraud. To mitigate this, the establishment of an authentication system for honey is very important in order to protect both producers and consumers from possible economic losses. This research presents a simple analytical method for the authentication and classification of Indonesian honeys according to their botanical, entomological, and geographical origins using ultraviolet (UV) spectroscopy and SIMCA (soft independent modeling of class analogy). The spectral data of a total of 1040 samples, representing six types of Indonesian honey of different botanical, entomological, and geographical origins, were acquired using a benchtop UV-visible spectrometer (190–400 nm). Three different pre-processing algorithms were simultaneously evaluated; namely an 11-point moving average smoothing, mean normalization, and Savitzky–Golay first derivative with 11 points and second-order polynomial fitting (ordo 2), in order to improve the original spectral data. Chemometrics methods, including exploratory analysis of PCA and SIMCA classification method, was used to classify the honey samples. A clear separation of the six different Indonesian honeys, based on botanical, entomological, and geographical origins, was obtained using PCA calculated from pre-processed spectra from 250–400 nm. The SIMCA classification method provided satisfactory results in classifying honey samples according to their botanical, entomological, and geographical origins and achieved 100% accuracy, sensitivity, and specificity. Several wavelengths were identified (266, 270, 280, 290, 300, 335, and 360 nm) as the most sensitive for discriminating between the different Indonesian honey samples.

scholarly journals Consumer Knowledge about Food Labeling and Fraud

Foods ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 10 (5) ◽  
pp. 1095
Author(s):  
Maria João Moreira ◽  
Juan García-Díez ◽  
José M. M. M. de Almeida ◽  
Cristina Saraiva
Keyword(s):  
Public Health ◽  
Meat Products ◽  
Principal Component ◽  
Food Composition ◽  
Food Labeling ◽  
Consumer Knowledge ◽  
Food Labels ◽  
Food Label ◽  
Food Fraud ◽  
Different Types

Food fraud is a growing problem and happens in many ways including mislabelling. Since lack of consumers’ knowledge about mandatory food labeling information and different types of food fraud may impact public health, the present work assesses consumers’ knowledge about these issues. Principal component analysis was performed to obtain a smaller number of uncorrelated factors regarding the usefulness and confidence of information displayed in food labels and the perception of food fraud. Results indicated that information displayed in food labels is useful, however the way it is presented may decrease consumer interest and understanding. Regarding respondents’ confidence in foodstuffs, over half of them stated that information provided in food labels is reliable. However, a lack of confidence about food composition is observed in those processed foodstuffs such as meat products. Food fraud is recognized by more than half of respondents with a higher perception of those practices that imply a risk to public health than those related to economic motivation. Age and education of consumers influenced the perception of the information displayed in the food labels, their confidence and knowledge about food fraud. Implementation of education programs to increase consumer knowledge about food labelling and fraud is essential. Respondents’ perception results could be use as guidelines by the food industry to improve food label design in order to enhance consumer understanding.

How the food industry experiences and perceives food fraud

2018 ◽  
Vol 10 (4) ◽  
pp. 325-333 ◽  
Author(s):  
I. Djekic ◽  
A. Režek Jambrak ◽  
J. Djugum ◽  
A. Rajkovic
Keyword(s):  
Food Industry ◽  
Food Fraud

scholarly journals Country-of-Origin Labelling, Food Traceability Drivers and Food Fraud: Lessons from Consumers’ Preferences and Perceptions

2017 ◽  
Vol 8 (3) ◽  
pp. 541-558 ◽  
Author(s):  
Michail BITZIOS ◽  
Lisa JACK ◽  
Sally-Ann KRZYZANIAK ◽  
Mark XU
Keyword(s):  
Risk Assessment ◽  
Country Of Origin ◽  
Product Labelling ◽  
Purchasing Decisions ◽  
Food Fraud ◽  
Food Traceability ◽  
Systems Implementation ◽  
Assessment Systems ◽  
Primary Means ◽  
Consumer Perspective

AbstractMany factors influence consumers’ perceptions and purchasing decisions, with product labelling forming the primary means of communication. The extent to which labels should contain information about traceability is debated. Whilst traceability is an important tool used by food business organisations and regulators in assuring food safety, other drivers for information about traceability are less well understood. This paper reviews the issues related to drivers for traceability from a consumer perspective, and evaluates country-of-origin labelling (COOL), enabling technologies and food fraud as potentially significant drivers in consumer requirements for information. The implications for risk assessment, systems implementation and communications about traceability are also considered.

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