COUNTERFEITING FOOD

   An assistant professor of the anti-counterfeiting and product protecting program at Michigan State University in East Lansing talks about food fraud.  “Our program deals with all kinds of fraud but with a special focus on food.  If you haven’t heard of food fraud before don’t be alarmed because we only published the formal definition just over a year ago. Another name for it is an ‘economically motivated adulteration’ or criminal adulteration of food for economic gain.  Sometimes a cheaper ingredient instead of a more expensive one is used including lying about the country this food is from. Many people cannot taste the difference or saying something is organic when it is not.  This can be dangerous even though it is not because these people cannot differentiate, for example, the difference between pure olive oil or if it has been diluted with cheaper hazelnut oil.

    Fraud is also a function of counterfeiting in connection with luxury goods but a function of opportunity and production capability.  If you owned a toothpaste plant in a country with slack law enforcement, would you counterfeit Swiss watches or toothpaste?  The most notorious example of food fraud happened in China in 2007 and 2008 – the deliberate adulteration of pet food, milk, and infant formula powder with melamine, an inexpensive ingredient normally used to make dishes, plates and adhesives.  These products were being sold to manufacturers for further processing and the melamine helped them pass low cost tests used to determine protein content.  These contaminants in the melamine caused kidney stones, kidney failure as well as some deaths. 

     It is hard to catch food fraud when there seems no reason for it.  For example why would they need to test milk for fraud?  We have now developed multiple tests to keep fraud from duping those protein tests.  Larger companies and retailers now have more resources to keep fraudsters from duping those protein tests.  Look for the country of origin printed right on the back of the package and buy from people you trust.  Even at a farmers market, be sure you trust the farmer.  A three minute consult column from John Spink, Ph.D., in Consumer Reports, September 2012.