FOOD ADULTERATION-A UNIVERSAL THREAT TO CONSUMERS

The hapless citizens in India can take solace from a recent scholarly report about fraudulent practices adopted by manufacturers of foods world over to get economic benefits at the expense of the consumer. One is familiar with the famous saying of one of the past prime ministers of India describing corruption as universal and not confined to India. Same appears to be true with food adulteration also. It is surprising that the fraudsters are always one step ahead of the safety agencies when it comes to detecting adulteration and their techniques are increasingly becoming more and more sophisticated with time. Food frauds literally constitute a high tech industry because of the enormous economic gains inherent in adulteration. Interestingly costlier the food product, more incentive is available for evolving appropriate methods to mimic the original product with cheap alternatives.Here is a gist of the report that elaborates on economic frauds perpetrated in the US based on reliable data base. 

"Olive oil, milk, honey, saffron, orange juice, coffee and apple juice are the seven most likely food ingredients to be targets for intentional or economically motivated adulteration of food, or food fraud, according to analysis of the first U.S. public database created to compile information on risk factors for food fraud published in the Journal of Food Science. The database was created by the U.S. Pharmacopeial Convention (USP) and provides baseline information to assist interested parties in assessing the risks of specific products. It includes a total of 1,305 records for food fraud based on a total of 667 scholarly, media and other publicly available reports. Food fraud is a collective term that encompasses the deliberate substitution, addition, tampering or misrepresentation of food, food ingredients or food packaging, or false or misleading statements made about a product for economic gain. A more specific type of fraud is the fraudulent addition of non-authentic substances or removal or replacement of authentic substances without the purchaser's knowledge for economic gain of the seller. According to the authors of the paper, food fraud may be more risky than traditional threats to the food supply because the adulterants used in these activities often are unconventional and designed to avoid detection through routine analyses. "The vast majority of food fraud is primarily technical and economical," said John Spink, associate director with the anti-counterfeiting and product protection program at Michigan State University. "However, there are some cases where there can be serious health consequences as illustrated when melamine was added to infant formula and pet food in order to falsify the level of protein content in these products."

When it comes to food adulteration no other country can beat India because this is a country where every one has unlimited freedom to indulge in such activities with no possibility of retribution. Though food laws that exist are comparable to international ones, there is very little activity at the ground level to monitor or detect adulterated foods in the market or punish the guilty. Milk is mentioned as one of the top adulterated products but can any country beat the ingenuity of the Indian fraudsters in evolving a milk completely without a cow or a buffalo, using ingredients like detergents, urea, cheap oil etc that competes with genuine milk in the market with complete impunity? Of course Chinese may be providing close competition by using the deadly Melamine to increase protein values in milk for economic gains! Saffron is another commodity that attracts fraudsters like the honey beckoning the bees! Consumers are invariably advised by well meaning pundits that they should go for branded foods marketed by established food manufacturers but it is like asking people to eat cake if bread is not affordable! Besides almost all commodities that do not undergo any significant are not available in the branded format from reputed industry players. There does not appear to be any lasting solution to this vexed problem. Stringent punishment to proven fraudsters in double quick time, if made the hall mark of the food safety regime, may see a decline in adulteration cases significantly. A separate and dedicated food fraud court stream under the judiciary for fast tracking such cases may also have a deterrent effect.  

V.H.POTTY
http://vhpotty.blogspot.com/
http://foodtechupdates.blogspot.com

THE SAFFRON "FRAUD"-A GLOBAL PHENOMENON?

Saffron is considered the costliest amongst spices commanding as much as Rs 50000 a kilogram in the international market and highest quality saffron is supposed to be produced in Spain. One can imagine the extent of money that can be made even if there is a 1% adulteration of this spice with extraneous matters! But it is nothing but scandalous to hear about 50-90% adulteration of saffron that is reported to be taking place, the fraud estimated at millions of dollars globally. Poor consumers have no way to know how bad the saffron being bought from the market in good faith as there are no quick tests to determine purity. Here is a take on saffron fraud reported from Europe.

"Food officials have begun an investigation into claims that "red gold" is routinely adulterated with other, worthless parts of the crocus flower in a scam that is defrauding thousands of gourmands. The Food Standards Agency (FSA) has asked its counterparts in Spain to test the saffron being exported from that country after being tipped off that supposedly "pure and genuine" saffron on sale in the UK is of poor quality, and fails to supply the usual colour and aroma. An amateur cook in Britain prompted the investigation by using his own money to buy large quantities of saffron to be tested at labs owned by the Ministry of Industry, Tourism and Commerce in Spain, one of the largest exporters. His findings prompted the FSA to intervene. Saffron should be painstakingly harvested from the stigma of crocus sativus linnaeus, some 85,000 of which are needed to produce a single kilogram. Under international standards, the finest saffron – which sells for £6 a gram, £6,000 a kilo – should have only 0.5 per cent of "floral waste" and 0.1 per cent "extraneous matter". But the results on 10 brands purchased and sent for analysis, passed on by the amateur cook to The Independent, suggest that the use of other parts of the crocus range from between 40 per cent and 90 per cent. In other words, some "top-quality" saffron allegedly contains as little as 10 per cent of actual saffron".

One may recall the big saffron fraud that was going on in the sacred temple of Tirupati some years ago when it was discovered that even government approved samples were grossly adulterated with materials of non-saffron origin and saffron is an integral ingredient in the famous laddus sold as prasad to the unsuspecting devotees. One does not know whether such practices are still continuing though there is practical difficulty in getting 100% pure saffron, especially in a country like India which a "paradise" for food adulterators. It may not be any consolation for Indian consumers to know that saffron adulteration is a "universal" phenomenon! Probably the standards and prices of saffron should be linked based on purity, similar to milk which is priced depending on the fat and solids contents.

V.H.POTTY

http://vhpotty.blogspot.com/
http://foodtechupdates.blogspot.com