Unveiling Food Fraud: Authentication, Adulteration, and Detection Techniques

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Abstract

This research paper focuses on the topic food authentication and food adulteration detection. These two processes are of a major concern as it pertains to the global food market. As consumers become more aware of nutrition and thus become more health conscious there is an accentuated value that is placed on what exactly they are consuming. This concern as it pertains to food is as a result of the prevalence of food fraud in the contemporary society.

As such, this paper is designed to go deep on two such forms of food fraud which is as mentioned previously, food authentication and food adulteration.

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It is intended to give a scope on the rationale behind the conduct or the act, the impact which it poses on health issues and the forms which it takes. In addition, it will address cases in the past which have been detrimental to the food economy and food community. It will also educate consumers about evidence and ways to detect these forms of food fraud.

Finally, the study will take a scientific scope as it pertains to scientific evaluation of the detection of food fraud by focusing on the biological, chemical and isotopical procedures.

Introduction

The case of food fraud has been a growing issue since the dawn of modern technology, due to many factors such as revenue, population density and to increase productivity. Two terms which are key in understanding food fraud are food authentication and food adulteration. Food authentication refers to the process by which a label description complies with what is really in it.

Food adulteration on the other hand refers to the process by which the quality of food is altered by the addition of an adulterant or by the removal of vital substances4. Food adulteration is also a method in which people use to violate food authenticity.

The main motive behind violating food authenticity and food adulteration is to increase revenue by using lower quality produce in food manufacture. Some types of food adulteration include incidental, intentional and metallic adulteration. Intentional adulteration involves the deliberate addition of adulterants in order to increase revenue while incidental adulteration is the occurrence of the adulterants being introduced into food due to negligence and lack of proper facilities4.

Metallic adulteration occurs when metals such lead, tin and arsenic are introduced into food4. There are various ways in which food can be adulterated such as mixing, substitution, concealing quality, use of decomposed food, false labels and addition of toxicants4. Some popular foods that are adulterated include extra virgin olive oil, milk/milk powder, chili powder and turmeric powder. In the case of extra virgin olive oil, the reason why it is adulterated is because it is very rare and hard to obtain.

Milk products are adulterated by the addition of water and melamine5. Various techniques are used to determine food authenticity and food adulteration, some common ones used are Raman spectroscopy, IR spectroscopy, biological, gas chromatography and NMR spectroscopy. These techniques are effective because they give information about the chemical composition and molecular interactions which can then be used to successfully identify adulterants. The regulatory bodies that are responsible for preventing food adulteration and ensuring that food authenticity is withheld are the World Health Organization (WHO) and Food and Drug Administration (FDA).

Rationale

The food industry is one of the largest industries worldwide, one of which many investors put their money in to receive feasible gains in revenue. The main reason why food is adulterated is to increase profits, they do this by using lower quality ingredients or chemical substances to effect a desired change to make food look like it is of high quality when truth in fact it is not. Another reason that encourages food adulteration is the lack of laws to prevent the act and government intervention4. The ignorance as to what our food is also made of is another motive behind act of food adulteration, this is due to most consumers being more concerned about food having a low price tag or being easy to prepare than actually reading labels and criticizing what is in the food itself 4. High population density may also force food manufacturers to adulterate food in order to meet the demand4.

Methods of Adulterations

Mixing- Involves the combination of soil or dirt with spices such as black pepper or even baking powder.

Substitution- Cheaper low quality ingredients are completely or partially replaced with the high quality ones.

Concealing quality- Hiding the quality of food by using labels that suggest food is of high quality when in truth is it not.

Decomposed- Involves combining spoiled food with fresh ones to get a greater yield of product, usually done with vegetables and fruits.

Misbranding- This is done by changing the manufacture and expiry date.

Addition of toxicants- addition of non-edible substances to make food look more appealing, for example colourants and preservatives.

Health Issues Related to Food Adulteration

Carcinogens- Some of the adulterants have cancer causing properties. In the case of edible oils such as sunflower and olive oil, mineral oils are mixed with them to increase yield but this results in the oil becoming carcinogenic. Some colourants are also carcinogenic for instance metal yellow.

Brain damage- Foods that are contaminated with lead or mercury can cause serious brain damage and mental retardation.

Cardiac damage- Consuming food with high levels of cobalt can lead to heart disease.

In 2008, the WHO experienced the biggest food adulteration scandal yet to date which was the melamine scandal in China. Chinese food manufacturers where adulterating milk by adding water to increase the volume of milk being produced, which resulted a decrease in the protein concentration. In order to counteract this undesirable change they added melamine to increase the overall nitrogen thus increasing the apparent protein content. Another case involving melamine contaminated food occurred in the USA, 2007 when wheat gluten and rice protein concentrate was imported from China to make pet food. The pet food had high concentration of melamine which resulted in a great number of dog deaths due to kidney failure. They are no known apparent effects on humans but based on animal test done which showed that melamine can cause the formation of kidney stones and bladder stones. Kidney stones can cause blockage of tubes in the kidney resulting in a halt in urine production potentially leading to kidney failure and ultimately death.

In 2013 they were numerous reports of horse meat being sold as beef in Ireland, UK and France. It was discovered by DNA testing done by FSAI of beef burger samples from some popular convenience stores which revealed that one-third of the samples had horse DNA while 85% had pig DNA. This incident was major violation against food authenticity because thought that they were eating only beef when in fact it was a combination of horse meat and pig meat. No known major health issue was associated with the consumption of the horse meat, even though they may find traces of phenylbutazone which can cause aplastic anemia in a rare occurrence. The concentration of phenylbutazone is really low so it would not be of a major concern.

Detection Methods

Household methods- Adulteration can be detected using simple household techniques. A way of detecting adulteration in honey is by placing a spoonful of honey in water, if the honey dissolves then it is adulterated. The principle behind this test is that in most cases when honey is adulterated the adulterant is sugar and sugar is less dense than honey so it will dissolved quicker.

Fourier Transform IR spectroscopy - FT-IR spectroscopy provides a quick nondestructive method of analysis which can be used on a wide variety of samples in the industry and also for research. The principle of this analysis is based upon that when an IR beam is passed through a sample usually in the mid IR range or the near IR range, the functional groups present within sample will absorb this radiation and produce a stretching or bending vibration which then can be used to determine the chemical species. The absorption spectrum generated can be used as a chemical fingerprint due to it being exclusive to its own self. FT-IR spectroscopy would be ideal for detecting substances such as melamine which have high a concentration of nitrogen present in its chemical composition.

Near infrared spectroscopy- This IR method is effective due to its simplicity in instrumentation and portability. The portability allows for it be able analyze foods at different stages of processing which is very vital to quality control. This method is also important in determining food authenticity. One major disadvantage of using NIR spectroscopy is the low the sensitivity to minor constituents.

Raman spectroscopy- This technique is most ideal for testing food products due to its diversity of analytes that can be examined which range from macromolecules such as proteins, lipids and carbohydrates to minor constituents such as dyes, flavourants and pigments7. This technique is also utilized in the of food spoilage microorganisms such as Salmonella spp. and Escherichia coli7. The usefulness of Raman spectroscopy is greatly increased by the ability to join it to microscopes so that a resolution of 1m can be obtained which is most suitable for single microbe identification or trace analysis7. Another advantage of this method is that it requires minimal or no sample preparation7.

The general basis behind Raman spectroscopy involves the measure of the exchange of energy with electromagnetic radiation. The radiation is set at a particular wavelength which is provided by a monochromatic light source in the visible to near infrared region of the electromagnetic spectrum. The sample is usually irradiated with a laser and the interaction between the photons and molecules creates a series of molecular vibrations. The scattered photons received will either be Rayleigh scattered (elastic) or Raman scattered (inelastic). The spectrum obtained provides a representation of the energy gained or lost by a photon and is expressed in wavenumbers.

NMR spectroscopy- This is a fingerprinting techniques which is based on the magnetic properties of certain nuclei. NMR spectroscopy provides useful information about potential functional groups and potential chemical structure. NMR spectroscopy can be used on solids, solutions and complex mixtures which adds to its versatility. The principle behind this technique involves the application of the theory that most chemical elements have a magnetic spin.

The chemical isotopes which are mainly involved in this type of analysis are H1 and C13 due to the fact that they have a spin quantum number of a ½. The change in energy between the two spin states (alpha and beta) is detected when nuclei is placed in a magnetic field and radiation from the radiofrequency region is applied to it. The spectrum is then generated showing various proton peaks and carbon peaks. This technique is ideal in detecting adulteration and declaring food authenticity in beverages such as beers, wines, fruit juices and spirits. NMR spectroscopy also provides information about the geographical origin of food which is vital in determining food authenticity

Gas chromatography- As it pertains to gas chromatography, it is used identify the various components in food.

Conclusion

The issue of food adulteration and violating food authenticity seems to be a never ending one. Based on the research done it was revealed that various techniques were used to adulterate food such as misbranding and concealing quality. The techniques used to detect these types of food are very effective in there regard such as Raman spectroscopy and NMR spectroscopy.

The major problem lies in the hands of the WHO, FDA and other food governing bodies to set strict laws and harsh penalties for organizations who adulterate food. Suggested measures that could be enforced are frequent raids of major food organizations, long prison sentences ( 15 years or more), test imported food to rule out the potential of adulterants and educate the public about the issue of food fraud so they can more cautious as to what they consume.