Food Business News - January 29, 2013 - 11

Incidences of food fraud rise
as research eﬀort continues

ROCKVILLE, MD. — As the U.S. Pharmacopeial Convention looks for more incidences of
food fraud, they are finding it. The U.S.P. has
added nearly 800 new records to its food fraud
database, which increases the total number of
records by 60%. The database’s first iteration
compiled 1,300 records of food fraud published
between 1980 and 2010. The update consists
mostly of information published in 2011 and
2012 in scholarly journals and general media.
The U.S.P., a non-profit scientific organization that also publishes the Food Chemicals
Codex, defined food fraud as “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.”
Top ingredients represented among new records in the database are olive oil, milk, saffron, honey and coffee. All five of the ingredients were in the top seven in the analysis of
1980-2010 records. Tea, fish, clouding agents
and black pepper, none of which made the top
25 in 1980-2010, followed the top five ingredients in the new records.
Among the new media and other reports,
milk, fish, turmeric, chili powder and cooking oil were the most represented products.
They all made the top 12 in 1980-2010. Shrimp,
lemon juice and maple syrup, none of which
made the top 25 in 1980-2010, followed those
five ingredients in the update of new media and
other reports.
“While food fraud has been around for centuries, with a handful of notorious cases well-documented, we suspect that what we know about
the topic is just the tip of the iceberg,” said Jeffrey Moore, senior scientific liaison for the U.S.P.
and the database’s creator and lead analyst.
He said the U.S.P. hopes food manufacturers, regulators and scientists use the database
to help achieve a safer world food supply. He
said the database may provide knowledge of
known and potential threats, spur research

January 29, 2013

and development of more accurate detection
methods, and increase awareness of food
fraud among consumers and lawmakers.
The U.S.P. drew attention to clouding agents
by comparing them to the melamine scandal
involving Chinese milk products. Clouding
agents are used in fruit juices and other beverages to improve visual appearance and to make
products look freshly squeezed. Numerous
database records documented the plasticizer
Di(2-ethylhexyl) phthalate (DEHP) and other
related phthalates being added fraudulently as
clouding agents in place of more expensive ingredients, such as palm oil, in juices, jams and
other products. Safety concerns surrounding
DEHP include cancer and improper development of reproductive organs in children.
The U.S.P. said fraud is a significant problem in seafood. About $80 million in seafood
is sold in the United States annually, and more
than 80% of fish in the country is imported. The
U.S.P. said in the United States puffer fish is being mislabeled as monkfish to evade import restrictions. Puffer fish has caused tetrodotoxin
poisonings, according to the U.S.P.
“Seafood is an example where food safety
controls are species-specific, making replacement of one fish with another especially troublesome,” Dr. Moore said.
Food fraud in milk, vegetable oils and spices
is a worldwide concern. The database includes
examples of watered-down and urea adulterated fluid milk in India, dilution of milk powder with fillers such as maltodextrin in South
America and replacement of milk fat with vegetable oil in South America. China had a food
fraud problem with “gutter oil,” or waste oil
repurposed as cooking oil. FBN

Letter calls for the
reclassiﬁcation of
Greek yogurt
WASHINGTON — Senator Kristen
Gillibrand and Representative Richard Hanna, both of New York, have
called on the U.S. Department of
Agriculture in a letter to reclassify
Greek yogurt as a source of protein
under the agency’s nutrition guidelines. Such a reclassification would
make Greek yogurt eligible for inclusion as a source of protein in
the National School Breakfast and
National School Lunch programs.
Greek yogurt is currently not differentiated from traditional yogurt
under the guidelines, and dairy
products are designated under a
separate classification from other
sources of protein.
The state of New York is home to
some of the industry’s largest Greek
yogurt manufacturers, including
The Dannon Company, Inc., Chobani, Inc., Fage USA Dairy Industry,
Inc., and the soon-to-be operational
PepsiCo, Inc., and Theo Muller
Group joint venture manufacturing
plant in Batavia, N.Y.
“Greek yogurt is packed with
healthy protein and should be available to our children in schools,” Ms.
Gillibrand said. “New York State

is home to a strong and growing
Greek yogurt industry. And when
we connect these businesses to
lunchrooms across the country, we
can give our children better access
to healthy, nutritious food, while
strengthening New York’s own dairy
industry.”
In the letter to the U.S.D.A., Ms.
Gillibrand and Mr. Hanna asserted
that Greek yogurt should be permitted as an affordable, high protein
option under the National School
Lunch Program. They also argued
that the inclusion of Greek yogurt
in the National School Lunch Program would save school systems
money while purchasing meals for
students. FBN

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Food Business News - January 29, 2013

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