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Advanced analytical methods needed to address food fraud, says professor

Professor of Food Authenticity and Integrity at Wageningen University in the Netherlands, Saskia Van Ruth says that in order to combat food fraud effectively, information is required on the factors the can influence the vulnerability of organisations and the food chain.

Van Ruth says that ‘new unconventional fraud’ and products with labels such as ‘sustainable’, ‘biological’ or ‘animal-friendly’ call for new advanced analytical methods.

“No-one likes to be deceived and certainly not when it comes to food,” says Van Ruth.

“Products are sourced from all over of the world and the food chain has become a fragile, extensive widely-branched network, vulnerable to fraud”.

Van Ruth points to a number of recent incidents including the horse meat scandal and the use of melamine in dairy products, however she states that little is actually known about the frequency or how widespread food fraud truly is.

She says that food fraud may concern product composition, the production practice or origin of the product produced. According to Van Ruth, specific naturally occurring physical or chemical characteristics define the identity of a product, and that simple analysis of the moisture content of a product can at times provide answers as to the true origin of a product, however more complex cases require the combination of analytical chemistry and statistics. This includes looking at the relationship with the environment where food production takes place.

Van Ruth says that changes in the composition of dairy products such as the addition of protein or melamine-like substances as well as the characteristics of products such as organic egg production, the typical characteristics of speciality coffee and the origin of cocoa beans are key research areas at present.

“If something seems too good to be true, then it’s probably too good to be true”, says Saskia van Ruth.

 

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