Food fraud

Some of my colleagues here recently hosted a seminar looking at the analytical tools used to combat food fraud.  It particularly showcased emerging technologies and methods, funded and developed by the Agency’s authenticity programme, which are used to detect fraud and so protect consumers. Levels of interest in this area are indicated by the large and varied attendance – over a hundred people came, including representatives of the Agency, local authorities, public analysts, consumer organisations, industry and the media. 

Over the New Year, you might have heard excerpts from Bee Wilson’s book “Swindled – The Dark History of Food Cheats” on BBC Radio 4. The book describes the history of food fraud starting with the appalling, rampant and dangerous adulteration of many common foods, especially in the early 19th century. It relates the achievements of Arthur Hassall, who can be considered the founder of food control in England. He used microscopy to show the heavy adulteration of coffee and spices, as well as the poor state of London’s drinking water. It was his systematic and large study of 2,500 food samples that eventually led to the first overarching legislation protecting consumers from adulterated and dangerous food in 1860, and the establishment of laboratories called public analysts to enforce the legislation.

My first ever foray into blogging in November last year was about food fraud, and I'm talking about it again today, living proof that what comes around goes around, I suppose. There's been lots of media interest over the last few weeks in our authenticity survey into farmed and wild fish.

That doesn't surprise me. Lots of consumers are interested in this issue.  A colleague was in Sainsbury's the other day and heard a woman at the fish counter seeking assurances that salmon described as 'wild' had not been farmed.

Eggs have been big news recently. Defra investigated alleged mislabelling, and we did a survey of salmonella in non-UK eggs. It's no change to the Agency's advice about cooking and storage.

No, not a storyline on TV’s CSI, but a reference to the Agency’s drive to combat food fraud, highlighted in the New Scientist’s 11 November 2006 issue.  My colleague Mark Woolfe, who leads on the Agency’s food authenticity research programme, was quoted.

In the last 10 years we've seen DNA techniques, originally applied to criminal forensics, adapted to detect food fraud. We've used it to check if Basmati rice has been mixed with cheaper varieties, or whether potatoes are being fraudulently labelled as King Edwards.